Kristal's Adventure Through Johto
by AwesomeAstrid
Summary: Hi, my name is Kristal, but you can call me Kris. After Professor Elm gave me a Pokemon, I finally decided to leave home and travel through the Johto region to take on the gym challenge. I don't know where this adventure will lead me or how it will change me, but I know that it will show me who I truly am, and will help me develop into the best possible version of myself.
1. Chapter 1: A Choice

**A/N: Welcome to my newest story! This is a story following the basic plot of Pokemon Gold/Silver/Crystal/Heartgold/Soulsilver. It follows the story of a girl named Kris, short for Kristal, and her adventure through Johto (and later Kanto). She is not based on the Kris in any of the manga (which I've never actually read), but rather, she's more like an OC who uses Kris's appearance and basic information but has a personality that I've created myself. A bit similar to Skitty and Vui's Red Rescues, it follows the basic plot of the game but adds personality to the characters, so I hope this story is interesting. As always, any feedback would be much appreciated. The name of this story may later be changed if I think of something better so don't be surprised if it does.**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Pokemon, or any of the characters I use here.**

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Today seemed like such an ordinary day. I sat in my room and listened to Professor Oak's radio show. Or at least I did, for about half a minute, before turning off the radio. I was bored. _Why?_ I wondered for a second. I loved hearing Professor Oak talk about Pokemon, along with Mary who he shares the show with. I look over at the map of the Johto region that hangs on my wall. It's so big, and I wish I could see more of it. I've been to Cherrygrove City a few times, but other than that I've never been far away from home. But I just love imagining what would happen if I did leave.

I'm eleven, and I'll be twelve in a few months. Ever since I turned ten, I've been old enough to leave home. People over ten in Johto are allowed to ask Professor Elm for a starter Pokemon, but I never did. I don't know why, I just never decided to leave. It's a big decision, right? Some kids are excited and they just up and leave as soon as they turn ten. At least, that's what I've heard.

I think about my small town of New Bark. There's just a few houses and Elm's lab. Off to the west is the only way to leave town, unless you count the water on the east side of town. I occasionally see trainers passing through, crossing the water to get to the Pokemon League or to travel to the Kanto region. I sometimes watch them as they use their Pokemon to help them across the water.

I think so much. Probably because I don't talk much. I'm quiet and shy, never bothering to speak up for myself. It's probably because I'm around adults more often than kids. I haven't been around kids my own age much since I'm stuck living in New Bark Town, where there are no other families with kids. 'Stuck'? Is that really what I just thought about my hometown? I've never really minded living here, but maybe… maybe I do want to leave home.

Bored of sitting in my room, I head to the main room of our small house where Mum was talking to her friend who was visiting.

"Oh, Kristal, Professor Elm wanted to see you in his lab. He said he wanted you to do something for him." Mum says when she sees me. Since it's such a small town, everyone here knows each other. Professor Elm seems to like having me around, so sometimes I hang around in his lab and help him out with simple tasks. _I wonder what it could be this time?_ Last time he wanted to see me, I got to help feed some Pokemon he'd found in the wild that he was studying, which was so exciting. The time before that, he needed me to remind him how to send an email on his computer. So really, it could be anything. "Oh, yeah, and your Pokemon Gear is back from the repair shop." Mum says, picking up my Pokegear from on the table and handing it to me. It had a lanyard I'd attached it to, which I used to hang it around my neck.

"Okay, I'll go and see Elm now." I said. I went back to my room to grab my bag before heading out. Sometimes he gives me things, like books about Pokemon, so I figured it would be a good idea the bring my bag just in case.

As I approached the lab, I noticed someone unfamiliar standing near the lab. This wasn't too uncommon, as trainers sometimes passed through town. But I wasn't sure if he was a trainer. He? Yes, I think it's a he, despite his long hair, which was red and flowed down past his shoulders, almost as long as mine. When I say red, I don't mean ginger. It was full on red, as if he'd dyed it. This wasn't uncommon though; my hair was blue. I had it done last year, and it's one of the most interesting things I've ever done, which kind of says something about my life.

But anyway, this guy who looked to be the same age as me stood just to the side of the lab. I thought maybe he had come here to get a Pokemon from Professor Elm, but it didn't look like he was going in anytime soon. _Maybe he's shy too_ , I thought. But I dismissed the idea, thinking that if he didn't have a Pokemon, how would he have gotten here? He was by himself, and you can't get here from another town without crossing through the tall grass of route 29, which is dangerous without a Pokemon to protect you from the Pokemon that live there. Either way, I didn't know what it was about him, but he seemed interesting.

"So, this is the famous Elm Pokemon lab…" I heard him say quietly. That's when he finally saw me. He turned around. "What are you staring at?" He said, before shoving me away. True, I hadn't realised how close to him I'd ended up standing. Maybe he was one of those people who were really fussy about personal space? Still, I wasn't expecting him to push me like that. I'd stumbled back, but didn't fall to the ground, and wasn't really hurt. I tore my line of sight away from him to head into the lab.

Giving a quick wave to Elm's assistant as I passed him, I headed over to Elm to see what he wanted me to do. He was over at his desk with his laptop. _He'd better not need help using that thing again_ , I thought.

"Ah, Kris, it's good to see you. I've got something I want to ask of you." He said when he saw me. "I got an email" _Well at least he remembers how to check his email._ "From my colleague, Mr. Pokemon." _Is that really his real name? Wait. He didn't meet some stranger on the internet, did he?_ "Apparently, he's made some miraculous discovery that he wants to show me, but I'm to busy to go and get it from him. So, I'd like you to go and get it for me. He lives on route 30, just past Cherrygrove City. While you've never been further away from home than Cherrygrove City, and you've never left New Bark Town alone, since you're eleven I think you're old enough to get there on your own." I just stood there, nodding every so often, taking in this request. "And besides, you won't be completely on your own." He gestured to a nearby table where three Pokeballs were lined up, with labels in front of them. "I have three Pokemon for you to choose from. I'd like you to take one, so you can make your way to Mr. Pokemon's house."

I slowly waked closer to the table and looked at the labels in front of the Pokeballs. From left to right they read: 'Cyndaquil – fire mouse Pokemon – fire type', 'Totodile – big jaw Pokemon – water type', and 'Chikorita – leaf Pokemon – grass type'. I recognised the names from a book I'd read. I had seen pictures and knew what they looked like. But which one to choose?

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 **A/N: Thanks for reading the first chapter. I've got a pretty good idea of how the rest of the story will go, except that I haven't planned out Kris's team. In fact, as I'm writing this, I'm still not sure what starter I'll have her pick, so feel free to suggest something if you're reading this before I've uploaded the next chapter. I feel like this chapter was a bit short and the others might be a bit longer than this, but I decided to leave the starter a cliffhanger, so I ended it here. So, thanks for reading and I will see you in the next chapter. Bye!**


	2. Chapter 2: The Deception

**A/N: So, here's chapter 2! Hope you liked the first one, and thank you to Northstar Pokeshipper, the first reviewer. I was tossing up between two starters, but finally chose one, and then started planning out a bunch of other Pokemon Kris will have along her journey. But if you guys have any ideas or any Pokemon you really want to see in this story, just let me know in a review or a PM and I'll probably make it happen.**

 **Disclaimer: I still don't own Pokemon.**

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Slowly, tentatively, I finally reached for one of the Pokeballs. My hand grasped it tightly as I looked down at the other two. _Am I making the right choice?_ I'd seen pictures, but other than that I knew nothing about these Pokemon. Looking back at the ball in my hand I decided to just go for it. _Yes, this is the one I want. I mean, all three of them are starter Pokemon, right? So, they should be easy to train. It's not like one of them would be more of a challenge than the others… would it?_

"So, you're choosing the grass type, Chikorita?" Elm asked. He must have remembered which order they were sitting in on the table, because he couldn't have read the labels from where he was standing. I nodded. "I think that's a good choice too."

I put the Pokeball in my bag and looked back at Elm who continued talking. "I don't think you'll have much trouble, but just in case, I'll give you my phone number." I handed him my Pokegear and he registered himself in my Pokegear, which is something I taught him how to do when he first got his Pokegear a few years ago, even though I didn't have my own yet at the time. I guess I'm just good with technology, but I never really thought about it.

"Thanks, Professor. I'll be back soon." I said. _'Soon?' Is that really what I said? I mean, I know route 30 is pretty close by, but this is me we're talking about! Someone who's never left New Bark Town alone before! Do I really have that much confidence in myself that I think I won't take long? Won't get lost or confused on my first time going further than Cherrygrove? Or am I just delusional, tricking myself into thinking I'll be as good as all those other trainers I see?_ I dismiss these thoughts and head to the door. Elm's assistant comes up to me.

"Here," he says, handing me something that looked vaguely familiar, but I didn't quite remember what it was. "It's a potion, you can use it to heal your Pokemon if it's injured."

"Thanks," I Mumble, secretly feeling dumb. _A potion. I should have known that_ , I think as I shove it into my bag. _I've read books about Pokemon and how to take care of them. How did I all of a sudden forget about something as simple as a potion?_ I wonder. _Nerves_ , I decide. _Maybe it's just because I was nervous about leaving home for the first time or taking care of a Pokemon for the first time, and god, it's all just so overwhelming. How do other trainers do it? Most people start when they're ten. When they're ten! And I'm almost twelve! Come on, get it together, Kris!_ Finally, I leave the lab. I look back at my house, and suddenly, something stops me.

This is the moment where I should go and tell Mum I'm leaving on an errand for Professor Elm. _How will she react?_ I wonder. _Happily? No, she's never been too excited about travelling. She's never around Pokemon much, I think she's a bit scared of them. What if she's scared of Chikorita? What if she tells me to give him back?_ I am then surprised when the following thought pops into my head: _I don't want to give back Chikorita._ It's so weird. I've just got this Pokemon. I've never battled with it. I don't really feel like I can call it a friend. But that's just it. Chikorita's not my friend. But I want it to be. I want to be friends with a Pokemon. I am even more surprised when this next thought pops into my head: _I want to go into route 29. Now._ I look down at my Pokegear. It's 1:15 PM. I remember when I went to Cherrygrove with Elm's assistant. It didn't take long. In fact, it only took about 15, maybe 20 minutes each way. Mum usually lets my hang out in Elm's lab for as long as I want as long as I'm home for dinner. I could let her think I'm at the lab, go get whatever I need to get from Mr. Pokemon, and bring it back to Elm. I'll get the chance to experience what trainers experience, just for today. Then after I get back to the lab I'll give Elm his delivery and also… give back Chikorita. Then go home. Mum will never know, she'll think I was at the lab all day. She'll never know I ever left town. It'll be my little secret.

 _Whoa. What was I just thinking about? Leaving home without telling Mum? Lying? That doesn't sound like me. But they were definitely my thoughts._

I am snapped out of my thoughts by my Pokegear, which starts ringing with the most annoying sound ever. It's Mum calling. I answer.

"H-hey," I say, hesitantly, as if I'm worried she somehow knew what I was planning a moment ago.

"Hi honey, are you going to be helping out the Professor all day today? When he told me that he had something for you to do today, it, I don't know, sounded important, I suppose. He's got a lot of work to do, needs your help? I'm not surprised he's always asking you to help out, seeing as he's got a lot to do and just the one assistant." She rambles on. _Funny_ , I think about what she said. _That reminds me of something Elm's assistant once said. He said, "There are only two of us, so we're always busy." Although with how much I help out, sometimes I feel like it's the three of us._

"Y-yeah, he does." I say. It's not a lie, either. He does have a lot of work, he does need my help with something.

"Alright, that's fine, you can stay out as long as you want. Just be home for dinner, okay, honey?" She says. I take a second to process what she just said. _I can stay out as long as I want, I just have to be home for dinner._

"Okay, I'll see you tonight." I say. "Bye." I add quickly before I hang up.

I look to the exit of town. _I'm not breaking any rules_ , I tell myself. _She didn't say I can't leave town. She didn't say to stay in the lab. I'm eleven, I allowed to go in routes as long as I have a Pokemon with me._ And finally, I walk to the edge of town. _I'm going to do it. I'm really leaving New Bark on my own._ And then one more unexpected thought slips into my mind. _This is gonna be so cool!_


	3. Chapter 3: Traversing the Tall Grass

**A/N: I apologise in advance for this very long A/N. Feel free to skip past it if you really want to but there are some things here I think you guys should know.**

 **Thank you guys for the newest reviews, they mean a lot to me. And now I'm going to answer a few of Eevee's questions:**

' **Silver has made his appearance; will Gold/Ethan pop up at some point too?' I've been using Crystal as a base for a lot of things, such as what Pokemon will be in what Routes, but also other things. Usually if there's a difference between Gold/Silver/Crystal and Heartgold/Soulsilver, I'm gonna go with the Crystal option, unless it makes more sense to use HGSS's option, and I personally found the Lyra/Ethan character to be unnecessary, so he will not be in the story, at least not in the role he plays in HGSS. If I do eventually decide to use him, it will only be a quick appearance, and it probably won't happen until later in the story.**

 **Thank you for the suggestions of Pokemon she could use. A few of your suggestions (I won't say which though) are actually ones I'd put on my plans even before seeing your review, though some were just on the list of ones I'm considering and are not definite, but still it seems like you know Kris really well already. As for your question about Kris's preference of Pokemon, while I have a plan of some of the Pokemon she'll catch, I don't know how to describe her preference. At this point in the story, her opinions of Pokemon are still developing, so I guess she'll just catch whatever catches her eye without really realising she has a preference. Or maybe she'll overthink things as usual. But of course, you guys can still suggest Pokemon, because you might think of Pokemon that would really suit Kris that I just hadn't thought of. And since the story is following the basic plot of the game, she will eventually end up in Kanto, and I haven't got plans for anything she'll catch in Kanto, so I could use some suggestions from Kanto even though it will take a long time before she gets there.**

 **A few other things I wanted to mention was that I will be changing a few 'game logic' type of things so I don't have to explain things that don't make sense. Like in the anime, battles are not turn-based but are fought in real time as you would expect, meaning Pokemon can attack twice in a row, it doesn't matter. And you can't put a Pokemon inside a computer, that just doesn't make sense. Instead of using a PC the way you use it in the games, Kris will probably just send her Pokemon to Professor Elm when she catches enough to do so, like Ash sends his to Professor Oak. I know the transport machine they use doesn't really make much sense either, but what can you do? I guess they just have that kind of technology in the Pokemon world. Another piece of anime logic you'll see here is that Pokemon will say their names, which they don't usually do in to games. I was originally going to stay as close as the games as I could, but I didn't want to have to figure out how to write the sounds they make in the games. Feel free to ask me any questions about other aspects of logic I'll be using here.**

 **And even though I said I'd choose Crystal over the other games when there are differences, but one thing I don't like about generation 2 is that the berries have simple names like 'Berry' or 'PSNcure Berry." I will instead use their modern names like Oran Berry and Pecha Berry because these names are more well known and easier for me to remember. I've been playing Crystal recently and I keep reading the descriptions because I can't remember names like Mint Berry or Gold Berry.**

 **Anyway, I really like this next chapter as we see the trainer deep inside Kris start to emerge. She's always comparing herself to trainers as if she's not one herself and thinks she's not good at this, not realising that no one starts off good at something, she'll get better over time. But enough from me, here's the next chapter!**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Pokemon.**

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The white path of New Bark Town disappears as I step onto the short grass of route 29. Finally, I walk on ahead, into the tall grass. Suddenly, I gasp in surprise as something brown and furry jumps up at me. Okay, it didn't actually touch me, but it still scared me for a second. It was now stood on its tail, making itself look bigger. _Well, here goes nothing_ , I think, reaching for Chikorita's Pokeball.

"Go, Chikorita!" I say, throwing the Pokeball like I've seen trainers do when they release they Pokemon who then helps them cross the river that leads to Kanto.

"Chi-ko!" I hear, as Chikorita pops out of his ball. _Okay, I can do this. Now I just have to… um… battle. Right. I need to give Chikorita a command. I have to choose one of its attacks. Um, what attacks would it know?_

"Sentret!" The brown Pokemon suddenly lurches forward and scratches Chikorita. _No! I wasn't ready! In more ways than one. I'm not ready for this!_

 _"Chiko!" I hear Chikorita say, as he jumps out of the way of another scratch. Chikorita nearly got hurt there_ , I realise. _I can't let that happen. Okay, an attack. Think, Kris. Think of the most basic and obvious attack of all if you have to._

"Chikorita, use… um, tackle!" I finally speak up.

"Chik-chi-ko!" Chikorita dashes forwards and then launches himself at the Pokemon, tackling it. _What was its name?_ I wonder. _That doesn't matter now. Stay focused on the battle!_ Whatever it is, the Pokemon jumps back and curls up in a defensive position.

"Tackle it again!" I say, realizing this may be a good opportunity to attack. Or not. I really don't know what I'm doing. Chikorita tries to tackle it, but it jumps out of the way, uncurling itself just in time to see him. It jumps forwards and scratches him, before being hit by a tackle. It jumps back, but Chikorita is smart. He somehow shoots a single leaf at the Pokemon which stops it for a second. Then he takes the initiative to go for another tackle, which knocks the Pokemon to the ground. It lays on the ground for a second, but before I have a chance to feel worried if it was okay, I stand up and quickly glances at Chikorita before running off into the trees.

 _I won. I won my first battle!_ I mentally cheer.

 _Correction – we won. It was a team effort. Oh, who am I kidding, it was Chikorita, he did so great. He's so… awesome!_

"Great job, Chikorita!" I cheer, this time out loud. "That was awesome!"

"Chiko!" He cheers with me.

"Return," I say, returning him to his Pokeball.

I keep going, turning a corner to go up a small hill. I pass through a small patch of tall grass, but here nothing jumps out at me. I pass by a building which leads to route 46, if I remember my geography correctly. The numbers of the routes are so hard to remember, as they don't start with one, continuing on from Kanto's numbering, unlike most regions which have their own set of numbered routes. I glance at the building, but don't go near it, knowing that route 30 is where I need to go. I head through another patch of tall grass, and suddenly a flapping sound fills my ears as something flies around me. I duck out of the way to avoid being hit in the head by a small bird Pokemon. I realise I'm going to have to battle again. But this time, I know what I'm doing.

"Go, Chikorita!" I say once again, releasing him from his Pokeball. 'Him'? I now realise I never asked the Professor what Chikorita's gender is. Not that it matters, I don't mind either way, but it's like… earlier I'd been thinking about how I want to experience what its like to be friends with a Pokemon, even if it is just for the day. And I think a big part of that is being able to think of it as not just some creature but as a partner, and equal. And, well, I don't want to call my partner by the wrong pronouns, do I?

Anyway, getting back to the battle, I immediately called out, "Tackle!" not thinking of any other attacks for a moment. Chikorita jumped up, trying to tackle this Pokemon that I now realised was still flying just above my height. "Uh… try that leaf thing you did before!" I said, remembering how Chikorita had surprised me in its previous battle. I tried to remember the name of that attack. I knew I'd heard of it before. Chikorita didn't do it yet, possibly not understanding what I'd said. Maybe Chikorita had been taught to respond to the attack's name and wasn't able to understand my dumb description. I never understood how Pokemon could understand our words, but we can't understand their way of communicating. Ignoring this question that no one seems to understand either, I focused on trying to remember its name. "Um… um… leaf… razor leaf!" I finally shouted, hoping I'd remember it right.

"Chiko!" Chikorita stopped running and jumping, its feet still as it now swung the leaf on its head around and more smaller leaves flew towards the wild Pokemon. Its wings flapped faster as it was hit but one of its wings was hit by a leaf and it fell to the soft grass. It stood on its feet but, _being a flying Pokemon_ , I thought, _it probably finds it harder to battle on the ground._

"Okay, now tackle it!"

"Chiko!" I noticed my excited tone which matched Chikorita's. Right now, in this moment, I was happy. I was enjoying this. _Battling is fun!_

After being hit by Chikorita's tackle, the wild Pokemon flew off towards the trees. Chikorita ran back to me and, to my surprise, leaned its head against my leg attempting to hug me as best as it could with me standing and it down on the ground. I smiled, leaned down, and gave it a pat on the forehead, not touching the leaf on its head in case it was delicate like a Butterfree's wings.

"Hey, Chikorita," I said after a moment. It looked up at me. "Are you… a boy or a girl?"

"Chiko!" It said. _Okay, that wasn't a very helpful answer. But it was my own fault, what else was it supposed to say? Okay, I need a yes or no question._

"Sorry, um, are you a… boy?" I ask.

"Chiko!" It shakes its head. No, **she** shakes her head.

"So, you're a girl?" I confirm. She nods. "Great." I say. "I was just wondering. You know, that was a great battle, Chikorita. You take a rest now." I return her to her Pokeball.

Looking around, I see Cherrygrove City in the distance. To my right, a ledge with a small hill leading up to it, a boy up there near a berry tree. I don't think the trees on any of the routes around the region are owned by anyone, because anyone can just pick berries from them. I take a detour up the small hill to the tree and find an Oran Berry on it, one of the most common berries. I put it in my bag, thinking that it could come in handy later if Chikorita needs it. I glance at the boy, who smiles at me. He's holding a Pokeball, so I guess he's a trainer too.

"I'm waiting to catch Pokemon that only appear at night." He says to me, in case I was wondering, I guess. I glanced at my Pokegear. It was only 1:53, but maybe that's what some trainers do? They're determined, and they do whatever it takes to take care of their Pokemon and grow together, as a team (or so I've heard). Maybe he's wasting his time, but maybe he isn't. Maybe he's having a new experience, and maybe that's part of what being a trainer is about.

After glancing at the small ledge, I decided against the idea that had slowly begun to form in my head and instead walked down the small slope back down and made my way towards Cherrygrove City.

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 **A/N: So, I think this chapter is a bit longer than the first two. Or at least, it feels longer to me, because it took a bit longer to write. I hope you liked this chapter because I really enjoyed writing Kris's thoughts in this chapter. So now we've seen her battle, and of course she doesn't really know what she's doing since she's just starting, but she'll get better. Also, if any of you reading this have read my story Skitty and Vui's Red Rescues, I slipped in a little reference to that so let me know if you caught it. So, one more question for you guys, what do you think of the pacing of this story? Sometimes I feel like I want to speed things up because I'm excited for the later chapters, but I can't do that because I don't want to leave out any details. But is it too slow? I mean, it took her two chapters just to leave New Bark Town. Let me know what you think about the pace of the story because I think it could really help.**


	4. Chapter 4: Cherry Blossoms and Games

**A/N: Hi! Once again, I enjoyed writing this chapter even more than the previous one. I feel like I'm going to be saying that a lot, but it's true, I feel like this story is getting more and more fun to write, so I hope it's fun to read too. But now to reply to some reviews:**

 **Northstar Pokeshipper: I appreciate the suggestions, though I'm not sure either of those would work well on the team I've been planning for Kris. While I will still put them on my list of things to consider (because yes, I have a list, and also bunch of tables and notes because I'm being surprisingly organised about this), they definitely won't be the first thing she catches, since I've already got a plot planned out for how and why she catches her first Pokemon and what Pokemon it will be.**

 **Infernoir: While this is mostly based on the games, I will probably end up putting in some nods to the anime. Plus, I do love Misdreavus, so I will consider it. It wouldn't happen for a while though, since Misdreavus is only found at Mt. Silver in Gold/Silver/Crystal. But still if I decide I want her to have a Misdreavus earlier, I could be a bit creative with it and find another way for her to get one. Maybe it'll be in the Safari Zone, since they can be in the Safari Zone in Heartgold/Soulsilver? Maybe she'll meet someone who'll trade her one? I don't know yet but maybe I'll find a way for her to get one at some point. I've always preferred writing in first person, since I can show the protagonist's thoughts and feelings clearer. She's the one telling the story, so you get to see the world through her eyes. Though of course, I'm not going to try and convince you that first person stories are better or whatever, but that's just what I think about them. And I agree that sometimes I forget to add descriptions. I'm trying to improve that though, and I think this newest chapter is a lot more descriptive. As for what you said about the suggestions, don't worry, I'm not going to put in a Pokemon for the sole reason being that it was suggested. I like having a way to make the readers feel like they can influence the story, but the suggestions will only be used if I really want to use them. At the end of the day they are just suggestions and I will still write the story as I feel it works. The original idea behind my asking for suggestions is just because I thought, what if someone thinks of a Pokemon that I completely forgot about, one that makes me think to myself, 'Hey, that actually really suits Kris! Why didn't I think of that before?" But only the ones I really think work will make it into the story, so it is still "all in the hands of the author," as you said.**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Pokemon.**

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The pink rooves were the first thing I noticed about Cherrygrove City. In New Bark Town, the rooves of all building had been green. I heard that every town and city in Johto had a different colour used for the buildings of the rooves, but for now I'd only seen New Bark and Cherrygrove's colours. _'For now?' What am I thinking? Maybe I've been spending too much time with Chikorita and I've started thinking more like a trainer. I can't keep thinking as if this is going to last. I'm just going to Mr. Pokemon's house on Route 30, and then home in time for dinner so Mum will never know._ _I can't just leave home and travel like other kids do. That's what I am, I'm still just a kid. I'm not ready for this kind of thing yet._

I looked at the pink rooved buildings and recognised the building labelled 'Poke' as the Pokemon Centre, which everyone (even people who have never raised Pokemon or travelled before) know is a place where they heal Pokemon which also doubles as a hotel. _It's also the perfect place for trainers_ , I think, _since they're always travelling and need a place to stay the night when they're in a town far from home. Unless they sleep outside? I've seen trainers carrying camping gear. Maybe if they're too far from a town they sleep outside? I wouldn't know._ Even though I'm not really a trainer, I'm just using Chikorita to travel safely to Mr. Pokemon's and back, I figure I should take Chikorita to the Pokemon Centre, since she must be tired from our battles.

We actually don't have a Pokemon Centre back in New Bark Town, since people don't go there much. And no one ever felt the need to build one since Professor Elm can heal Pokemon in his lab if need be. I've been to Cherrygrove City a few times before, but in all those times I never actually went into the Pokemon Centre. _Well, here goes nothing._

A rush of cool air hit my face as I entered the large, brightly lit, air-conditioned room of the Pokemon Centre. A front counter was the focus of the room, where a woman with long pink hair stood. Behind the desk was a door that led to an off-limits-to-the-public back area. In a corner of the room were a few videophones and a row of chairs lined a wall as people chatted and waited for their Pokemon. A hallway led off to the entrance to another room and a set of stairs, which I guessed led to where people slept. I made my way to the counter.

"Hello, how can I help you?" The woman at the counter said before I even reached it. I froze for a second, as if I wasn't sure exactly how to answer her question.

"Uh could you, um… take care of my Chikorita?"

"Sure, that's what we do here." She said. She held out her hand: "I'll need to take Chikorita then. You can just leave it in its Pokeball." _'It'?_ I was actually mildly annoyed at her choice of pronoun. _She takes care of Pokemon for her job and yet she doesn't bother to call Chikorita a she? Wait, silly me, she doesn't know Chikorita's gender. Still, she could have asked. Or used its name instead._ "So, first time trainer?" She asked as I handed over Chikorita in her Pokeball.

"What? Uh, no. No, I'm not a trainer. I'm just uh… taking care of Chikorita. Temporarily. So that I can run a little errand, and, y'know, I need a Pokemon to be able to travel between towns, because Pokemon live in the tall grass."

"Oh, okay." She says, as if she doesn't know what to say next. _She's probably so used to talking to trainers that she doesn't know what to talk about with someone who isn't a trainer. Or doesn't want to? This sort of makes me feel like I'm below the trainers, not as good as them. In a Pokemon Centre, it's all about the trainers. But I'm not a trainer. I'm just using a Pokemon temporarily… which makes me less than them? I have got to stop thinking about these things. I just gotta get to Mr Pokemon's, then get home, and this will all be over._ She puts the Pokeball into a machine that looks similar to one I saw in Elm's lab. I always wondered how those things actually worked. "Just wait around and I'll let you know when it's ready to go back to you." She says.

"Thanks." I just say. _What else is there to say? Though I really do mean it, I am grateful that she's taking care of Chikorita for me. For free too, although in this day and age it's become the norm for Pokemon Centres to look after Pokemon for free. The supplies and equipment are usually donated by famous trainers, usually gym leaders or even members of the elite four. And I think the staff are paid by the government or something. But I have no idea how the system works. I wonder how much the people who work at Pokemon Centres earn? … Why do I think so much about this stuff that no one cares about?_

I go and sit down at one of the seats lining the wall. I check my Pokegear. It's only 1:47 PM. _Why was I worried about getting home in time?_ I asked myself. _It only took about half an hour to get to Cherrygrove, and I just have to make it in time for dinner and Mum will think I was just at the lab the whole time. So why was I worried? Because I worry about everything_ , I answer myself. _Because I always assume the worst and think I might be in trouble even when I'm not. I gotta work on that. But no, I am in trouble. Or, I should be. I lied. I left home without telling Mum. She thinks I'm helping out Professor Elm in his lab, not battling wild Pokemon in route 29 or getting a Pokemon healed in a Pokemon Centre after walking to Cherrygrove City on my own. Well, almost on my own, but she doesn't know I have a Pokemon. She can't know. I'm going to give Chikorita back to Professor Elm. I think he thinks I'm going to keep Chikorita and… become a trainer or something? He has too much faith in me, I could never be a trainer. I can't. I'll have to tell him that. For once in my life, I'm going to have to stop being so nervous, so I can say to him, "Professor, I'm sorry, but I'm not going to be a trainer. So, I'm giving Chikorita back." That's what I'm going to have to do. "I hope you find a nice home for her with a really nice trainer," I imagine myself saying after that. Of course, I do want Chikorita to be happy. But she can't stay with me._

I am snapped out of my thoughts by the counter-lady's voice. "Chikorita's… um, trainer?" I hear her call out. _Of course, she never even asked my name._

Before I even have a chance to look up from my position of staring into my lap, I hear a few quick footsteps before feeling a weight land on my lap and see a mass of green in front of me.

"Chi-ko-o-o!" I instinctively smile ( _Why does it make me so happy to see Chikorita again?_ ) and reach forward to give her a pat.

"Hello there," I say happily. I look up from my seat to see the counter-lady standing nearby.

"After we were finished with her we were going to put her back into her Pokeball, but she ran off to find you." _Oh, so now she calls Chikorita a she? Well, she probably only just found out Chikorita's gender. They must have checked. Um… why am I thinking about that so much?_ She held out the Pokeball for me to take. I took it, then looked at Chikorita.

"Alright, you found me. Were we playing hide-and-seek?" I joked.

"Chiko, chiko." I didn't know what that meant, but it still made me happy to hear it. I looked up to see that the counter lady was already walking away, back to the counter. _Probably wants to go back to talking to real trainers._ Think about the words I'd just spoken to Chikorita, an idea suddenly formed in my head.

"Say… how about we actually play hide-and-seek? Wouldn't that be fun?" I say, slipping the Pokeball back in my pocket. I don't know why I'd said it. It's like I just had this weird, sudden urge to play with Chikorita.

"Chiko!" She nodded happily.

"Not in here, though." I said. "Let's go outside." I tried to lift Chikorita off of my lap and gently put her on the floor. I walked out of the Pokemon Centre, Chikorita following behind me. After we got outside, I knelt down to speak to Chikorita. "Okay, do you want to hide first?" She nodded. I looked around Cherrygrove City. While it was classified as a city, I never understood why, since it was actually pretty small. It was bigger than New Bark Town, but not by too much. "Okay Chikorita, listen. You can hide anywhere so long as you stay in Cherrygrove City. Okay? And no hiding in any buildings, we're going to just play outside. And if you decide you don't want to play anymore, just sit in front of the Pokemon Centre and I'll see you there. Okay?"

"Chiko!"

"Okay, I'm gonna close my eyes and count to 10. Go hide!" I heard the sound of Chikorita's light footsteps running off as I closed my eyes. I counted in my head, slowly, to give Chikorita a bit more time. 1… 2… 3… 4… 5… 6… 7… 8… 9… 10.

"Ready or not, here I come!" I said aloud, the way I would at family gatherings when my cousins and I would play hide-and-seek. Those were just about the only times when I was around kids my own age, so I enjoyed it every chance I got. I looked around, but of course I didn't spot Chikorita in plain sight. I started slowly, wandering around the small city, looking around. I noticed that the city was surrounded by trees, except for one side which led into the sea. After circling the town, I noticed a signboard that stood out a bit in the middle of town. I walked over to it, as I was facing the back of it, and walked around it to read it. That's when I noticed the small green shape crouched behind the signboard. A green shape with a leaf on top of it.

"Chikorita? Found you." I said, reaching over to her.

"Chik-chiko!" She said when she saw me. I gave her a pat before looking at the signboard. It showed the city's slogan: 'The city of cute, fragrant flowers.' _Perhaps the 'Cherry' in Cherrygrove is supposed to represent cherry blossoms? That would explain the pink rooves._

"So, do you think I should hide now?"

"Chiko!" A nod. Because so far, I've only been able to ask yes-or-no questions. _I've got to work on that. Work on what?_ I then question my own thoughts. _Understanding Chikorita, I suppose. But how? She can't speak. I guess all I can really do is ask yes-or-no questions._

"Alright, um…" It then occurred to me that Chikorita might not know how to count. After I thought for a moment, I came up with a solution. "Close your eyes and spin around until you start to feel dizzy, that's when you can come and find me. Okay?"

"Chiko!" She closed her eyes and started walking in circles. _Okay, Kris, think. You need a hiding place and you need one now._ I looked around the city, taking notice of landmarks _. Path to Route 29, Pokemon Centre, mart, opening to Route 30, ocean, and then there's a few houses scattered around. Not a lot to work with. Man, I wish I could be a Pokemon right now, so I could be smaller and hide somewhere small like Chikorita. Wow, that was a weird thought. I don't actually want to be a Pokemon. I just want to be able to hide easily._ Finally, I ran to the small cluster of trees in between the Pokemon Centre and the mart, found a foothold, and began to climb. After I found a place to sit around halfway up the tree. I pulled a branch towards me to let the leaves cover me, keeping the leaves below my face so I could still see, and held onto the trunk of the tree with my other hand for safety. I looked down at Cherrygrove City. I saw Chikorita, who seemed to have just stopped spinning around as she took a few dizzy steps. After the initial dizziness wore off, she bounded forwards and ran a lap around the city, her head darting around to look around everywhere. She bumped into an elderly man who was walking towards one of the houses, but of course, she clearly didn't mean it, and the man looked down and smiled at her before continuing on his way.

Suddenly, I decided that instead of watching her, it would be more fun for it to be a surprise when she finds me. I closed my eyes and just focussed on the feeling of being up in the tree, feeing the cool air on my face as well as my ears, which weren't covered by my hair since I'd decided to tie up my hair in two ponytails today, as I have been doing recently. My yellow hat covered the top of my head and the shorter hair not tied up covered my forehead. There was the occasional small breeze, which caused this shorter hair to move and brush against my forehead, which tickled slightly. I felt the strap on my bag slip a bit from my shoulder, and I let go of the tree trunk for a moment to pull it back up before instinctively grabbing for the tree again. I felt a strange texture touching my wrist as I grabbed the tree. I opened my eyes to see something long and green. It was a vine. I looked down to see Chikorita below the tree, the vine coming from her neck.

"Chik-o-o-o!" she shouted. I imagined her shouting, "found you!" as if she were one of my little cousins, having happily won a game of hide-and-seek during which the older kids hid in very easy hiding places for them. Being an unevolved Pokemon, I think it's safe to assume that Chikorita isn't very old, and she does seem to get excited like children do, so I guess that's not such a bad comparison.

"Ooh, you found me!" I said to my excited little friend. "Alright, I'm coming down, just a second." I playfully batted away the vine that was still close to my hand, which she retracted. I climbed to a lower branch and then looked down. Seeing the height I was now at, I decided it was safe to jump down from the tree. I landed on my feet, but stumbled back and then fell backwards, landing on my butt. _Mental note: don't jump down from trees._ Chikorita ran to me. "I'm okay, just fell, but I'm fine." _So what now?_ I wondered. I looked to the path to Route 30. _It's time to continue my… adventure? Is that the right word? No, it's just a little errand. Oh, to heck with it. This has been so fun. This really is an adventure!_

* * *

 **A/N: So, I actually wasn't originally intending to spend a whole chapter in Cherrygrove, but it just sort of happened. Although I have certain aspects of this story planned out, like plot points that will happen later on, I don't have everything planned exactly like, 'chapter 1 will end as she's choosing her Pokemon,' 'chapter 2 will end before she leaves New Bark,' or 'chapter 3 will be spent in Route 29 and end as she approaches Cherrygrove.' Nope. Doesn't work like that. I just write as I go along, and while some writers prefer to plan out their stories, and I understand that, I find it easier and more fun to write like this. I get to make spur of the moment decisions. For example, Kris's joke of "were we playing hide-and-seek?" was originally going to be just a joke, and they were going to move on to Route 30. But then I randomly decided to make them play hide-and-seek for a bit, which I think worked out as a good decision since it makes it feel like I'm not rushing them to Route 30, as well as giving them an opportunity to bond and spend some time together. Honestly, I feel like when we get to a later part in the story where Kris has a big team and Chikorita has evolved, I'm going to miss writing these nice moments where it's still just Kris and Chikorita, so I'm gonna enjoy writing these moments as much as I can.**

 **Also, the layout of the Pokemon Centre was mostly based on what we see in the anime, in case you couldn't tell, since it makes a bit more sense than the small place we see in the games. Like the ones in the anime, the Pokemon Centres in this story are going to have places to eat and sleep, since it makes sense that a town would need a place like that.**


	5. Chapter 5: The Destination

**Disclaimer: I don't own Pokemon**

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Pushing myself to my feet after my tumble from the tree I hid in, I looked down at Chikorita. I finally noticed something in her mouth. She dropped it in front of me.

"Hey, what have you got?" I said, reaching down to pick it up. I looked at it. I was a small cartridge that can be inserted into a Pokegear to load programs onto it.

"Ah, so you're its trainer. I thought this little one might have picked up my map card." I heard a man's voice and saw an old guy now coming towards me. I remembered him being the guy Chikorita had bumped into while looking for me during hide-and-seek.

"Oh, so this is yours?" I asked, ignoring his calling me Chikorita's 'trainer'.

"Yes, I think I must have dropped it when your little one bumped into me. Just an accident though, no harm done." She said, adding the last part when he must have noticed the worried look I probably had.

"Oh, well… here you go." I held it out for him to take.

"It was going to be for my grandson, but as it turns out, he already has a map on his Pokegear. I see you have a Pokegear," _He does? Oh, right, it's around my neck. Sometimes I forget it's there._ "Why don't you use the map card? It'll do you more good than me."

"Are you sure?" I asked.

"Yes, go ahead. I don't need it." He walked away, leaving me standing there, still holding out the map card like an idiot. After a moment I looked down at Chikorita.

"Well, it looks like we've got a map." I said. I inserted the small card into my Pokegear and it automatically loaded the map program so that I wouldn't need the cartridge anymore. I slipped the cartridge into my bag and looked at the Pokegear's screen. It now showed a map of the Johto region. It was similar to the one that was on the wall in my room, except I could hover the cursor over a place and it would give a small description. I checked the description for Route 30 since that was where I had to go next. It said, 'a grassy path where you can battle other young trainers.' _'Other'? Great, now the Pokegear is assuming I'm a trainer! Why?! Well, because they're mostly designed for trainers_ , I answered myself. I think all the trainers I've met have had a Pokegear. In fact, Mum gave me mine for my tenth birthday.

After returning Chikorita to her Pokeball, I finally headed into Route 30. To go around a small cliff, I walked up a short incline. I noticed the tall grass brushing against my feet, and looked around warily in case of Pokemon attacking, but made it through without any hassle. Then I saw a house. _Maybe it's Mr. Pokemon's!_ Suddenly feeling brave (and excited for some reason), I knocked on the door. A man answered. I'd never met Mr. Pokemon, so I had no idea I this was him or not.

"Hey, um… Mr. Pokemon? I mean, is this Mr. Pokemon's house?" I asked.

"No, he lives just up ahead." The man said. I saw him glance at Chikorita's Pokeball, which was still in my hand, I never bothered to put it back in my bag. "So, you're raising a Pokemon, huh?" I was so glad he didn't say, 'So you're a trainer, huh?'

"Yeah, I'm taking care of Chikorita, so I can go to Mr. Pokemon's and back for an errand for Professor Elm. I live back in New Bark Town."

"It's nice to see younger people helping out. I like to grow berries, which are really good for Pokemon. Here, I'll share some with you." He leads me to the tree next to his house, where I could see some bright blue, clearly ripe Oran Berries growing. He picked one and handed it to me. "Feel free to pick from my tree whenever you're nearby."

"Thank you, thanks so much," I said, not really knowing what to say but being polite as I always was.

"Mr. Pokemon's house is just up ahead. It's in a clearing just past some tall grass. He grows his own berries too, so you could recognise it by the Pecha Berry tree near his house."

"Thank you, bye."

"Good luck on your errand." He went back into his house as I headed off. _Well, that was awkward. I mean, I know he was nice about it, but that was still stupid of me to go and knock on his door. Whatever, let's just forget about it and move on. Time to find a house in a clearing past tall grass with a Pecha Berry tree. Pecha Berry. That's the pink one, right?_

I went past the house, going around through a grassy path on the right to avoid the small cliff on the left. I felt a shot of slimy thread hit my leg just below where my shorts ended. I instinctively reached down to wipe it with my hand before looking for where it came from. I spotted a small, green Pokemon with large yellow eyes and pink antennae on its head, somewhat camouflaged in the grass. But by now I knew what to do. I reached for Chikorita's Pokeball.

"Come on out, Chikorita!"

"Chiko!"

"Razor leaf!" After leaping into action, ready to go and looking excited, Chikorita immediately used razor leaf after I'd told her to, shooting leaves at the smaller Pokemon. It retaliated by shooting more of that icky thread, this time at Chikorita, but she managed to avoid most of it my jumping out of the way, getting just a small bit on one of her feet. She scraped her foot on the grass in an attempt to get it off. The small insect-like Pokemon ( _maybe it's a bug type?_ ) slowly made its way towards Chikorita. _It must be trying to go for a physical attack like tackle or something. Maybe Chikorita can hit it first. Maybe…_ "Chikorita, use…" _Wait, what do you call it when she uses those vines on her neck?_ "Use those vines!" I called out. _Wait she might not understand without the proper name!_ "Use vine… vine whip! That's it, vine whip." Upon hearing the name of the attack, she immediately pulled out one of her vines, which she used to reach over and knock the green bug away. "Now tackle!" Having finished scraping the thread off her foot, she ran over to the bug and tackled it. It stayed on the ground now, barely moving. "Nice one Chikorita. Return." I gave her a little pat on the head before returning her to her Pokeball. _I always wondered why trainers always return their Pokemon after a battle, when they could get attacked again at any moment. Is it some sort of tradition? And I heard that trainers always say, 'go name-of-Pokemon' when sending out their Pokemon and they say 'go Pokeball' when catching a Pokeball. Why, though? Is that just some stereotype, or do they really do that? But getting back to my original question, why do they return their Pokemon when they could be attacked again? Is it comfortable in the Pokeball? Maybe I should ask Chikorita. Wait, what am I saying, she can't really answer me. Unless I asked all yes-or-no questions. That would be kind of difficult though…_

My thoughts fade away just as quickly as they popped into my head when I took in my surroundings: the path was split in two. To my right was a path covered in tall grass. To my left was a path with a small cliff like the ones I've already seen. The was a small hill to get up it just to the side of it, where two trainers, each with a Pokemon in front of them, were… battling, it seems. But I wasn't sure which way Mr. Pokemon's house was. _Maybe I could ask one of those trainers?_ I hesitantly walked towards them.

"Go on, Rattata!" The one closer to me exclaimed. "Tackle!"

"Uh… hey…" I said as I got closer to them.

"Hey, can't you see we're in the middle of a battle? Don't distract our Pokemon!" The other guy said. I stepped back. _Maybe I should wait until they finish their battle? But how long will that take? How long do battles usually take. I mean, I've battled wild Pokemon, but a battle between two trainers is surely different, right?_ I look at them, then look towards the other path. _Maybe I should just try the path they're not blocking? It would be a bit less of a waste of time, right? And if I think it's the wrong path, I can just turn back! Yeah, it'll be fine!_ After a mini pep talk in my head, I start walking to the path on the right. The trainers don't even notice me leaving. I really don't think they care.

I make my way into the grassy path to see it splits in two again. Slightly panicking in my head, I continue down the left part, with a bouncy skip in my step. I realise it's because I'm trying to avoid as much of the grass as I can. Luckily this works, and I make it into a small clearing where there is a house and a berry tree nearby. I noticed that both grassy paths would have led me here. _Well, that solves that problem then. So then, that must be Mr. Pokemon's house, right?_ Looking around, I noticed a tree near the house. Walking closer, I noticed some pink berries growing on it. Looking behind me I just realised that I was in a clearing past tall grass with a Pecha Berry tree. _This must be it._ I nervously made my way to the house and knocked on the door. A voice said, "come in!" _Well, I'm super nervous about this, but… he told me to, so I guess I should just walk in?_ I tried the handle, which turned, since the door was unlocked.

The room in front of me was small, similar to the type of houses you would find in New Bark Town. I strangely felt at home here. Various items relating to various hobbies were spread around the slightly messy home, and I could tell that studying Pokemon was more of a hobby than his life's work, unlike Professor Elm. In front of me stood a man dressed smartly with a blue hat. He certainly looks like an interesting guy. _Maybe Professor Elm will send me to see him again another time. Wait, what am I saying? I can't do that. This is a one-time thing, I can't go leaving home like this again!_

"Hello! Kristal, isn't it? Professor Elm told me you'd be coming." He said.

"Oh, so he figured out how to reply to your email alright? That's a surprise." I blurted out, without realising I'd said it out loud instead of just thinking it. _Great, now he's going to think I'm some cheeky kid rather than a mature, responsible person. And then that's going to reflect of Professor Elm because he'll think less of the Professor for entrusting a Pokemon to an immature kid which I'm not, but he doesn't know that…_ While all these thoughts ran through my head, I tried to laugh off my dumb comment. Surprisingly, Mr. Pokemon laughed along with me. _Maybe it's okay to make dumb comments sometimes? Maybe that was actually kind of funny? Maybe I should just stop overthinking these things. Is it so wrong to say whatever pops into my head? Of course, it is. I can't just say dumb things all the time, no one would think of me as mature or responsible._

"Actually, he called me with the Pokegear. It seems to be the only thing he can remember how to use." Mr. Pokemon said. I laughed a little at that. "So, here's what I want you to bring back to him." From his desk he cautiously grabbed… _an egg? Was that really an egg? Where did it come from?_ The egg was small, probably about half Chikorita's height, maybe even a bit smaller than half. _Maybe it's a baby Chikorita in there?_ I joked to myself, but I didn't really believe that. _But wait… what could be in there? Maybe it will hatch into a Pokemon! Wait… he doesn't want me to look after it, does he? I only just started looking after a Pokemon raised by a professor, I can't take care of a newborn! Hang on, let's just see what he wants me to do first_ , I think, trying to calm myself down. Probably noticing me staring at it, Mr. Pokemon continued. "I have some friends who run a Pokemon day care, and they found this. I believe it is a Pokemon egg, but I have no idea what it could hatch into. I think it would be better off in the hands of Professor Elm. It could relate help him in his current research." He placed it into my hands and I held it, warily, as if it were about to explode. He must have noticed this because he said. "Don't worry, I don't think it will hatch right away. And if anything happens, you could call Professor Elm. You have his Pokegear number, right?"

"Right," I said, calming down a little. I put down my bag and opened it, but then decided against putting it in my bag and instead decided it might be less likely to get bumped and potentially break if I just carry it. I put Chikorita's Pokeball into my bag to empty my hand while imagining what would happen if I get attacked by a wild Pokemon while carrying the egg. _I'd have to put down to egg, look in my bag, get out the Pokeball… I hope a wild Pokemon's attack won't damage the egg. If it actually is Pokemon egg, though, maybe the wild Pokemon will somehow sense that and not want to hurt the unborn baby? Or maybe I'm thinking this through too much. Besides, so far, the only Pokemon I've been attacked by were some brown furry thing, a small bird Pokemon and some little bug, which didn't seem too tough (I should probably find out their names later). We don't have a lot of big, scary Pokemon around this area. I suppose the bird could've broken the egg with its beak, but it probably wouldn't aim for the egg, and besides, the egg is in a case. Not a very protective looking one, but I guess it'll do the job for the short walk back to New Bark Town. Speaking of which, I should probably hurry up and get home before Mum finds out where I've gone. What if she goes into the lab to check on me and sees I'm not there? She's never come to check on me when I've been helping in the lab before, but what if she does? And why is my brain all of a sudden being so irrational? It'll be fine. I think. Okay, no it won't, I've left home without telling Mum and lied about where I am. This is not good. Okay, okay, I need to focus on one thing at a time. I should just focus on taking the egg back to Professor Elm._

"I trust you'll be careful with it, you look like a responsible enough kid." He said. _I think I'm blushing, I think I'm blushing! Why did I think being seen as mature and responsible would be better than being cheeky and dumb? This is embarrassing. And why does he still think I'm 'responsible' after the dumb comment I made before? Did that not matter? Maybe my dumb comment didn't affect his impression of me as much as I thought it would._

"I actually really hope Professor Elm likes this. I enjoy helping him out when he gets excited about something new to research." _'Enjoying helping with research,' that should also help him think of me as mature. And it's not a complete lie either, I do enjoy seeing how excited Professor Elm gets when he has something new to research. And I do enjoy helping him out, even though it's usually just small tasks. Maybe one day he'll make some famous discovery and he'll be willing to mention that I helped. Maybe. Probably not. But that would be cool._

"Yes, I think he will definitely want to look into this. He's an expert on Pokemon evolution. Even Professor Oak recognises that." He looked to the side and I finally noticed there was someone else in the room. But not just anyone. _It's Professor Oak! …He doesn't know I turned off the radio earlier, does he?_

"H… hi." I breathed, not sure what to say to Professor Oak, who was now standing in front of me. _Get a grip, Kris! He's just a person, speak to him!_

"I hear you've got a Pokemon now. Do you plan to raise it as a trainer?" Professor Oak asks.

"Uh um… I'm not sure…" _What are you saying? Just say no!_ I tell myself. But I don't. I don't know why, but I feel like I shouldn't just tell him 'no, I'm not going to be a trainer.' Because it just doesn't feel entirely truthful to say so. I start to think about what I've experienced today. _Maybe I do want to be a trainer. Should I tell him that?_ "Well… I think maybe I might want to be a trainer."

"Well that's great. You already seem like you've started to experience what it's like to raise a Pokemon. I would like to ask a favour of you." He picks up something that was on the table in front of him and holds it out to me. "This is a Pokedex, it automatically records data of Pokemon you encounter."

I nodded. "I think I've seen one in Professor Elm's lab before. I like to help out there a lot." I said. Then I remember he said he was asking me a favour, so I shut up, so he can continue.

"Well, I'd like you to take this Pokedex and use it to gather data on Pokemon." The Pokedex ends up in my hand before I realise I've taken it from him.

"O-okay…" is all I managed to say.

He turned to Mr. Pokemon. "Well, it was nice to see you again, but I have to get to Goldenrod City for my radio show." He turned back to me. "I hope to see you again, Kristal. Good luck filling that Pokedex." And with that he walked off, leaving Mr. Pokemon's house. _...What just happened?_

"Well, uh… I'd better be heading back to Professor Elm now." I said, and awkwardly walked out the door without saying anything else. As soon as I got outside, I heard a loud, annoying noise, and after a few seconds realised it was the boring ringtone of my Pokegear. _What if it's Mum calling to ask what I'm doing? I can't lie to her again, she'll hear it in my voice, I can't keep lying._ Despite my inner panic, I simply put the egg down on the ground by my feet and looked at the Pokegear screen. It wasn't Mum, but Professor Elm. "H-hello?"

"Kris, it's a disaster! Uh, um, it's just terrible! What should I do? It – oh, no. Please get back here right now!" And then he suddenly hung up.

* * *

 **A/N: Okay, I'm not imagining it, these chapters are getting longer and longer. According to Microsoft Word, this chapter takes up 5 pages (font: Calibri (body), size: 11, if you want the exact size). It always looks like a lot on Word but then it looks like a lot less when I check the preview after uploading it. But that's okay, I guess. And sometimes it's hard to figure out where to split the chapters, but I thought Professor Elm's phone call would make a nice way to end this one.**

 **Speaking of which, I wanted to just mention that of course, I'm not writing the exact same dialogue as what's in the games. I don't want to have to check every piece of dialogue, and more to the point, it would probably be a bit boring if it was exactly what they say in the games. I try to keep the dialogue fairly similar, keeping the basic ideas of the conversation in there, but I also try to add a little creativity to it, such as Kris and Mr Pokemon talking about Professor Elm not being able to use technology. Yes, I know he isn't known for not being able to use technology and this trait isn't shown in the games, but I'm adding in a little creativity, so these characters don't seem so bland.**

 **While we're also still seeing Kris thinking about how she doesn't really consider herself a trainer, in this chapter we also see Kris thinking about how others perceive her. She's always tried to act like a mature, responsible kid and now she's started questioning what it really means to be these things. Can you make funny comments and still be a mature, responsible person? That's something we all probably have to think about while growing up, whether or not we are maturing and what that actually means. As mentioned in, I think it was the first chapter, Kris is eleven, so of course, she's growing up, and we'll see that reflected in her thoughts throughout her journey.**

 **One more little thing I'll mention: I'm glad that the people who have reviewed so far have been fairly patient, not saying "why aren't you updating more often?" or anything like that. It takes the pressure off and allows me to update at my own pace. But even though no one's asked yet, I'll say it anyway: I don't have an updating schedule. I can't really schedule my writing, it just happens when it happens. Sometimes I feel like writing and sometimes I don't. And I'm currently a student in year 12, so I can't dedicate too much time to writing and neglect stuff like homework, I procrastinate too much already. So, I'll write whenever I can, and I thank you all for being patient like you are.**

 **Anyway, I'm already part way through writing the next chapter, so hopefully it won't be too long before the next update. See you guys next time!**


	6. Chapter 6: The Fiery Red Trainer

**A/N: Hi! Chapter 6 is finally here! I've been dealing with some problems at home, so I thought I'd be getting distracted from this story like I've been getting distracted from my school work. So, I thought instead of uploading a chapter right after I've finished it like I did before, maybe I should write a few chapters and not upload them yet, similar to how some Youtubers record videos in advance. That way I'd have some in storage so that if I don't feel like writing for a while, I'll have some chapters already written and I can upload one, so you guys don't have to go without an update for too long. That was the original plan, but I felt like uploading this one even though I've only got one chapter written after this one. Because, as it turns out, I haven't been getting distracted as much as I thought I would. While I have been getting distracted when I try to do homework (I really gotta work on that), I haven't been getting distracted from writing this story. Maybe because I enjoy it so much. Writing is my escape, so when I'm writing this story, I can stop thinking about what's been going on and just sort of escape into a different world for a bit. Anyway, here's the chapter some of you were probably looking forward to, the battle with Silver!**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Pokemon.**

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Professor Elm's panicked words echoed in my mind. "Kris, it's a disaster! Uh, um, it's just terrible! What should I do? It – oh, no. Please get back here right now!" Needless to say, I was freaking out. _What could have happened to make him panic like this? Well, I guess I should head back to New Bark Town and find out. Maybe I should call him back? No, he hung up on me, he'd clearly prefer me to be physically there than to talk to me. Maybe he needs help with something? Whatever it is, he wants me to get there "now!"_ So, wanting to help him, I picked the egg up, cradling it safely with both my arms around it, and started walking back.

The walk back was surprisingly quicker than the walk there. Remember that small cliff on the left of the berry man's house (which of course is now on my right since I'm facing the other way)? I considered jumping down it, noticing that I could avoid going through tall grass by going this way. But then, considering the egg's safety, I wondered if jumping was really a good idea. Finally, after way too long of overthinking the situation, I crouched down, sat on the edge of the small cliff, dangled my legs down so my feet were almost touching the ground and slipped off. _There. I got down without jumping._ I did the same awkward slip-down with the other cliff near the edge of Route 30, and finally, I was back in Cherrygrove City. Since Professor Elm wanted me to get back so quickly, I didn't bother going to the Pokemon Centre. _Chikorita only had to battle that green insect since being healed, she'll be fine._ As I headed towards Route 29, I was snapped out of my thoughts when someone ran right into me, probably running and not looking where they were going.

"Oh! Sorry!" I immediately said, as politely as I could. When the person stepped back, I noticed his long, red hair and remembered seeing him outside Professor Elm's lab. He took a step back to get away from the invading-my-personal-space-zone as I tried to recompose myself, adjusting the egg in my arms and checking for any visible cracks (there were none). When I looked up from the egg, I noticed he was staring at me. "Um… hi?" I said, wondering if he wanted to talk.

"You got a Pokemon at the lab, huh?" He said, but it didn't sound much like a question, more like he already knew the answer. _How would he know? What did he do, watch the lab door and notice me walk in without a Pokeball in my hand and walk out with one? First, I see him in the lab, and now here? He isn't following me, is he? No, that's silly, why would he be?_ "What a waste, a wimp like you."

 _I'm don't usually get angry. Why do I feel so angry? Maybe travelling with a Pokemon, even just to Route 30 and back, changes people._ Regardless of the reasons, I was angered by his comment, and felt the need to say something. "What do you mean, a 'wimp'? You don't even know me."

"I can tell." He simply said.

"What do you mean?"

"You don't understand? Well, I got a Pokemon too. I'll show you what I mean." He released a Pokemon from the Pokeball that I only just noticed was in his hand.

"Cynda-quil!" said the dark blue four-legged Pokemon. It was around the same size as Chikorita and had fire coming from its back. I remembered its name: Cyndaquil. I had seen pictures of it before in a book and remembered that it was one of the three Pokemon I had to choose from when I got Chikorita.

"Wait, you – you want to battle me?" I asked, slightly taken aback at the sight of the fiery Pokemon. _It kind of suits him_ , I thought, _what with his red hair._

"Yes." He said simply. "Or are you too much of a wimp to even try to battle?" This infuriated me. I seriously don't know what had gotten into me, but I felt a sudden desire to prove him wrong. _Is that what trainers feel? Is that why trainers challenge each other?_ "Come on, then." He said impatiently after I stood there staring at him dumbly for a few seconds. I could've said "no." I could have kept walking. But I had this strange feeling like something was at stake here. My pride, I suppose it was. All that matters is that I didn't want to walk away and refuse his challenge. Before I realised what I was doing, I was gently putting the egg down on the ground beside my feet and pulling Chikorita's Pokeball out of my bag.

"Go, Chikorita!" I shouted, the same way I had in battles with wild Pokemon. _Wild Pokemon were one thing, but battling a trainer? Don't I have to be a trainer to battle another person? Does this make me a trainer, accepting his challenge?_ Pushing those thoughts away, I looked at his smug face. Not grinning like I expected him to be, but he seemed… excited? It looked like he was trying to hide some excitement, trying to keep the indifferent demeaner he's shown so far.

"Go on Chikorita, tackle!"

"Tackle." Came his quieter voice at the same time as mine. I grew worried as I watched the two small Pokemon run up and basically ram into each other, probably hoping their own tackle would be stronger than the other's, but they seemed fairly evenly matched. After they hit each other, they both jumped back and tried to recompose themselves after the initial shock of hitting each other.

"Razor leaf!" I said, remembering how well that had worked to hit the bug before I had a chance to get close to Chikorita.

"Ember." As Chikorita shot leaves at Cyndaquil, Cyndaquil unleashed a small flame from its mouth that was sent towards the leaves. Most of the leaves were hit and burned, falling to the ground. The few leaves that weren't hit were the ones too high, and Cyndaquil simply ducked out of the way, the leaves going over its head. I suddenly realised the problem with this battle. _Fire. Grass. Fire burns grass, it's one of the first type advantages most people learn, the other two being that water douses fire and grass woks well against water. That means Cyndaquil, a fire type, has the advantage against the grass type Chikorita. Oh no._

"Um, uh, vine whip!" Chikorita pulled out her vines, but Cyndaquil's trainer (I still never asked his name) had a better idea.

"Smokescreen." Cyndaquil blew out a haze of smoke that surrounded the four of us (me, Chikorita, Cyndaquil and the red-haired guy). From what I could see of his face before the smoke completely shrouded him from view, he didn't seem bothered by it. Chikorita glanced around, looking for Cyndaquil. I coughed and used my hand to try and wave the smoke away. I hear the boy's quiet voice say something before a small flame came through the smoke at hit Chikorita. Panicking internally, I watched as Chikorita was hurt by the flame before Cyndaquil came through the smoke with a tackle that hit Chikorita roughly, causing her to legs to collapse as she fell to the ground.

Seeing Chikorita fall down in exhaustion, an instinct I didn't even know I had seemed to kick in and I ran to her side, dropping to my knees to see if she was okay. "Chikorita? I… I'm sorry." I don't know why I was apologising. I felt partly responsible for her injuries. No, that's wrong, I felt completely responsible. Forgetting about the fact that it had been Cyndaquil attacking and its trainer commanding it, the irrational part of my mind continued to remind me that I had agreed to the battle and sent Chikorita in to fight, risking her health. It wasn't even to protect myself, like if I had been attacked by wild Pokemon. It was just to prove to that arrogant, red-headed jerk that he doesn't know what he's talking about. _Is this what trainers feel like? How do they cope with it? They learn how not to lose, I suppose. But it can't work like that. In every battle, in order for someone to win, the other trainer must lose. So, do they just get used to it? Harden their hearts and watch as their Pokemon are hurt? I suppose the Pokemon don't get hurt too badly. At least, I hope they don't._ "Chikorita? Are you gonna be okay?" I realise the problem with my words. _I'm the trainer, I shouldn't be asking if she'll be okay. I should be telling her that she'll be okay, to give her confidence. It should be me supporting her, definitely not the other way around._

I hear footsteps and look up to see the boy coming towards me, stepping through the now thinning smoke. "I told you, you're just a wimp. What a waste of a Pokemon." He said. My blood once again boiled at his insult.

"Excuse me, I have to take Chikorita to the Pokemon Centre." I said. Luckily, it was right nearby. I returned Chikorita to her Pokeball, figuring that it would be easier than carrying her. _And maybe it's more comfortable in there?_ I tried to ignore the thoughts that were now popping into my head, mostly questions about what actually goes on inside a Pokeball, and instead tried to think of something else to say to this jerk, but I couldn't think of anything except, "I'm not a wimp." Which I said. _Why do I sound so dumb sometimes?_ "I'm Kris, by the way." I add, hoping he'll reply to that and ignore the other part, since he'll probably just reply to it by insulting me again.

"You're weak. Just look at you, worried about that useless, weak Pokemon. Pokemon are used to battle with, but you care about that one too much, and that will be your downfall." He returned his Cyndaquil without a word to it and started to walk towards Route 30. _Good_ , I thought. Not about his words, of course, but about seeing him head to Route 30. _Hopefully I'll never have to see him again._ But after taking a few steps away he stopped and turned back to look at me as if he thought of something more to say. "My name is Silver. I'm going to be the greatest trainer in the world. A wimp like you isn't even worth my time, so don't go getting in my way again." _Oh, I'm so sorry I got in your way_ , I thought sarcastically. But I didn't say anything more, only watched as he walked away.

I picked the egg back up, once again cradling it in my arms, and made my way into the Pokemon Centre and over to the counter. I could already see the look on that counter-lady's face as I approached. Yep, she was definitely annoyed.

"Well, for someone who isn't a trainer, you sure seem to be battling a lot." She said.

"Some trainer challenged me and I… I found it difficult to refuse." I tried to make it seem like no big deal. I didn't want to tell her everything. I simply handed over Chikorita's Pokeball and she took it. I notice her glance at the egg in my arms, but she doesn't say anything about it.

"Well, you know what to do, wait close by and we'll have your Pokemon healed soon." She said. I said nothing and walked to the seats I had sat in before. I sat there, not really thinking about anything. _Do other people ever do that too? Just sitting there being, well, thoughtless, at least for a few minutes? It makes sense that people don't do it much, since you're not really achieving anything by thinking about nothing when you could be using your time to think about stuff. Wait, now I am thinking, I'm thinking about thinking. Wow, my mind is weird. Okay Kris, shut up, and just stop thinking._ Because in this moment, I didn't want to be thinking. I knew that my thoughts would eventually turn to Chikorita, and how she must be feeling about me. _I let her down. Yes, I borrowed her from Professor Elm to protect me from wild Pokemon, but it works both ways. I should have protected her. How could I have let this happen? Darn it, now I'm thinking about her! Okay Kris, let's try this again. Shut up, and don't think about anything._

Finally, after failing miserably at trying to be thoughtless for a few minutes, I finally heard the voice of the counter-lady once more. "Here you go," she said, holding out Chikorita's Pokeball. "Try not to get into too many battles. If you're not so good at battling, try only going into tall grass when you have to." She says. I take the ball and she goes back to the counter. I think about her words. _I feel like her advice isn't very good._ I don't know why I think that, but it's like some instinct that wasn't there before is suddenly in me, and is telling me that I know better. _That sounds ridiculous though, right? Of course, she knows better than me, she works with Pokemon. She's not a trainer, though. What am I saying, neither am I!_

After shoving more thoughts out of my mind, I put the Pokeball in my bag and leave the Pokemon Centre. Part of me wants to let Chikorita out of her Pokeball and see if she's okay. _Of course, she's okay, they just took care of her at the Pokemon Centre_ , I tell myself. But I still want to see her. Eventually I give in and get the Pokeball back out of my bag, balancing the egg on one arm while opening my bag to find the ball. I press the button.

"Chiko!" _She's so happy to see me. Does she not have the capability to feel anger or something? Maybe she's just not the type to hold a grudge._ I try to ignore the lingering feeling that she should be mad at me and let the joyful expression on her face comfort me.

"Hey, Chikorita. Are you okay now?"

"Chiko." She nods.

"Oh… come here!" I say happily. I put down the egg and hold out my arms. She runs towards me and I pull her into a hug. After a moment I pull away and say, "Come on, time to take you home to Professor Elm."

* * *

 **A/N: I was originally considering having Kris win the battle against Silver, but I felt like it would make more sense for her to lose to him, what with Kris being so nervous and Silver being so confident. So, for now, Silver will continue to think that Pokemon are just tools for battling and he'll still think of Kris as weak for being so nice to her Pokemon. Silver's ideas of what makes a trainer strong kind of reminds me of a quote from the Flash TV series: "I thought his attachment to people was a distraction, now I realize the opposite is true. Barry's attachment to people, the people he cares about, is actually key to getting him up to speed." The quote is pretty similar to what Silver realises later on in the games. In fact, the quote could easily be changed to, "I thought her attachment to her Pokemon was a distraction, but now I realise the opposite is true. Kris's attachment to her Pokemon, the Pokemon she cares about, is actually key to her becoming a great trainer." Who knows? Maybe I'll actually use that line later in the story? Anyway, I love writing Silver and I look forward to writing his next appearance in the story. But, if I'm remembering correctly, the next battle with him isn't until that town with Bugsy's Gym and Kurt and the Slowpoke Well (I'm terrible at remembering the town names but of course I'll check when I get to it).**

 **Another thing, when Kris thought, 'Darn it, now I'm thinking about her', I wasn't sure what word to use there. I've been trying to think of nicer versions of swear words to use when Kris feels frustrated or something, since she's not really the type of person to use actual swear words. Probably because I'm not, either. I've read books where characters swear, and I understand that some writers are fine with using swear words, and that's fine, but I prefer not to, and I don't think I'll need to anyway, what with Kris's personality. So now I've got to figure out what words Kris could say or think when she's frustrated. I considered using 'son of a biscuit' in that sentence, but then changed to 'darn it', which I'm still not sure sounds right, but it'll do. So, if you think of any words that Kris could use, feel free to let me know.**

 **So, what will happen when Kris heads back to New bark Town? Is she really going to give Chikorita back to Professor Elm? And what is she going to do this that Pokedex Professor Oak gave her? We'll find out in the next chapter! And by 'we', I mean 'you' since I already have the next chapter written. See you next time!**


	7. Chapter 7: The Spirit of a Trainer

**A/N: Hi guys, happy Easter! Or if you don't celebrate Easter, just enjoy the holidays and the cheap chocolate. Today, two of my teachers gave us Easter eggs, and one of them even offered to buy us a coffee or soft drink from the canteen! So, what's going to happen in this chapter? Well, in the spirit of Easter, Kris is going to eat the egg she's been carrying. Kidding! April fools, I guess. Even though as I'm writing this, it's only March 29** **th** **, but close enough. Anyway, since I don't have much internet access at home, so I usually use the school's internet to update. So, with it being the last day of the term, I figured I should give you guys an update while I can. I'll try to update when I can on the holidays but don't expect anything too frequent until school goes back in two weeks. So enjoy this next chapter in which we find out the answers to all the questions I asked in previous chapter's A/N.**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Pokemon.**

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"Come on, time to take you home to Professor Elm."

"Chiko?" She sounds confused. I try to ignore her, not wanting to explain to her that she wouldn't be staying with me. I'd hoped that Professor Elm hadn't told her that I'd be keeping her, but her confusion now only confirmed this. Without a word, I returned her to her Pokeball, picked up the egg and kept walking. I was determined not to let this get to me.

Noticing the small cliffs on Route 29, I dropped down them, noticing a lack of long grass on this path. Within a few minutes that felt so much longer than they were, I made it back to New Bark Town. _I'm home. It doesn't really feel much like I've just come home. Because now that I think about it, being in Cherrygrove City or on Route 30, it didn't really feel as scary as I imagined being away from home would be like. Maybe I'm not as bad at travelling as I thought I was?_

I felt myself automatically smile when I saw the friendly face of Professor Elm's assistant as I walked through the lab. But my smile faded when I saw a police officer at the back of the lab talking to Professor Elm.

"Ah, and this is my neighbour and, well, I guess my part-time assistant, Kristal." Professor Elm said to policeman when he saw me.

"W-what's going on, Professor?" I asked, remembering how panicked he'd sounded over the phone. But it was the policeman who answered.

"A Pokemon has been stolen from this lab and so we're trying to find the culprit." I looked over at the table where three Pokeballs one sat. Since the labels weren't close enough for me to read from here, I tried to remember the order they had been in. _Chikorita was the one on the right. I think Cyndaquil was on the left and Totodile was in the middle._ Now, just one Pokeball sat on the table, in the middle. "We suspect it was the young male with long, red hair that was seen lurking near the lab earlier. We've asked around and it turns out he isn't a resident of New Bark Town." This only confirmed my recollection of Cyndaquil being the one on the left. _So that's why Silver was so interested in the lab earlier! He was planning to steal a Pokemon._ "Have you seen him?"

"Um, well, yeah, I've seen him. Actually, he challenged me to a battle earlier." I said nervously, hoping they wouldn't be mad that I accepted a challenge to battle a stolen Pokemon (even though I hadn't known he stole it).

"You battled him?" Professor Elm said.

"Yeah… he used a Cyndaquil." I answered, hoping he'd be too interested in the Pokemon stolen from his lab to think about why I, someone who isn't even a trainer, battled that felon.

"Did you get his name?" The policeman asked.

"Yeah, he said it was Silver." I told him.

"Thank you, I think I have all I need here. Professor, I'll let you know when we catch him or find out anything more."

"Thank you, officer." Professor Elm said. And with that, the policeman left. Looking like he was trying to stop thinking about the stolen Pokemon, the Professor turned to me to ask about my adventure – I mean, errand. "So, what was Mr. Pokemon's big discovery?" He asked, as if he hadn't even noticed the egg in the arms.

"This," I said, trying to point at the egg while still holding it. "He thinks it could be a Pokemon egg. He got it from some people who run a Pokemon day care."

The Professor took a step back, slightly shocked. "Well, this is incredible! Thank you, Kris, this will help a lot with my research." He took the egg from me and put it on the table next to the remaining Pokeball.

"That reminds me, I wanted to give you something." I reached into my bag and pulled out the Pokedex, which I never even tried using. "Professor Oak was at Mr. Pokemon's house when I got there, and he gave me this Pokedex. I know you already have one, but maybe you could find someone else to give it to?"

"Nonsense, Kris, that Pokedex is yours now." He said.

"But I'm barely going to use it." I reasoned. "I don't leave town much."

"Maybe it's time you did. And besides, you've already started using it."

"What do you mean?"

"Look, I'll show you." He took the Pokedex and turned it on. He showed me a list, but most of the names on the list were blank, however I could see that Chikorita's name was there, listed first. There was also Cyndaquil, listed fourth on the list, but it looked like Chikorita's page had more information on it. "You see, the Pokedex records information automatically whenever you see or catch a new Pokemon." He changed it to a page labelled, 'Party.' "And it shows your Pokemon, with all the information you might want to know about them. For example, here's Chikorita." The 'Party' screen showed what could be a list but only had Chikorita. After clicking on her page, I could see information about her, such as her name, her gender, and my name listed as her 'OT,' to name a few.

"But even if it's got my information on it, you could just reset it or something to give it to someone else, right?"

"You really don't want it?" This question really made me think. _Do I want a Pokedex? Do I want to be a trainer? I any of this what I want? How do I know what the right choice is? Is there a right choice?_

"Um…" Was all I could say, not knowing how to answer this question.

"Kris, listen to me. Do you know why Professor Oak gave you this Pokedex?" I just shook my head, bewildered. "He doesn't just give a Pokedex to anyone, you know. Three years ago, he gave a Pokedex to another girl around your age. At first, she thought he was only helping her because he expected her to be just like her older brother. But that wasn't the reason why she got a Pokedex. He gave it to her because he saw something in her, just like he had seen something in her brother, who left home a few years before her. It's impossible to explain, but he saw something special in that girl. He knew that if she just tried, she could achieve great things. It's like she had the spirit of a great trainer and she just needed to find a way to bring it out. Professor Oak saw something special in that girl. And now he sees something special in you, too, Kris. Now, I'm not going to force you into anything, but I suggest you consider trying the gym challenge. Professor Oak gave you this Pokedex because he thinks you have a gift, a special way with Pokemon that a lot of trainers don't have in them. And Professor Oak is never wrong, Kris. And I think it would be a shame to waste this gift."

 _Wow. That was… interesting. Inspiring? Maybe. I never really thought of myself as anything special. Well, I mean, I think everyone is special in their own way of course, but… me, a trainer? A gift? Is that going too far? But Professor Oak, he's brilliant. Professor Elm is right. He's an expert on Pokemon, so he wouldn't be wrong about someone's potential to be a trainer. Maybe I should do this. Or at least, consider it. Find out more about this gym challenge._

"Um, uh… wow, well uh, what exactly is the gym challenge?" I asked. "I mean, I've heard that there's gyms all around Johto, but…" I trailed off.

"Well, there are eight gyms around Johto. Each gym has a gym leader and if you defeat them in a battle, they'll give you a badge to show that you won. If you collect all eight badges, you will be allowed entry into the Pokemon League, which consists of the elite four, four of the best trainers in Johto, and after defeating those four you can challenge the champion and win entry into the hall of fame."

"Well, it sounds kind of hard…"

"Well, don't say that. I'm sure you could do it."

"Yeah, but Professor, I really don't think I'd be good at… being a trainer. I even lost my first battle against another trainer."

"That doesn't mean you're not a good trainer. You lost, now you can learn from that experience. Tell me, why do you think that battle didn't go well?"

"Um… well, he had Cyndaquil, a fire type. Fire type attacks are really powerful against grass type Pokemon, aren't they?" He nodded. "And I kept getting nervous and not giving Chikorita a command quick enough."

"You see, you're thinking about your mistakes. And that's a good thing. You made mistakes, and now you can learn from them. Go slowly if you need to. Maybe you should give it a try? Start off easy? I hear there are a lot of beginning trainers on Route 30. Eventually you'll realise you have been improving, and bit by bit you'll develop into a great trainer. Professor Oak sees something in you, Kris. And I see it too. Why do you think I sent you to Mr. Pokemon's house? Honestly, Kris, I could have gone there myself. I'm not that busy. But I thought to myself, 'This young girl has the spirit of a trainer. But she's never left home and never had a chance to discover any of her talent for raising Pokemon.'"

I really didn't know what to say. "Um… thank you, Professor."

"Tell me, Kris, how do you feel about your Chikorita? Surely you've had a chance to bond with her during this time?"

"She's great, yeah. She fended off all the wild Pokemon so well."

"You've got to give yourself credit, Kris. Pokemon can't do well in a battle without a great trainer. Did the two of you do anything other than battling together?"

"Um…" _Should I tell him I wasted time playing hide-and-seek when I should have been going to Mr. Pokemon's house like he asked me to?_ "Yeah. We took a little break and played… hide-and-seek for a bit."

"That's great." _Wait, what? How is that great? I thought he'd say I shouldn't have wasted time._ "The most important part of being a trainer is being friends with your Pokemon. Some people don't realise that." I thought back to Silver's words after the battle. He'd said, "Pokemon are used to battle with, but you care about that one too much, and that will be your downfall." _Was he wrong? But he battled so well, I thought he'd know more about Pokemon than me. Maybe I should just listen to the Professor, he's never steered me wrong. Maybe I should listen to the Professor about everything. Maybe this is a good idea for me. But actually, there is someone else who should be part of this decision._ Without saying anything to the Professor first, I grabbed Chikorita's Pokeball from my bag and let her out.

"Chiko!" I instinctively smiled upon hearing her voice.

"Chikorita, I didn't tell you this, but I wasn't planning on keeping you. I was going to bring you back to Professor Elm after we'd finished going to Mr. Pokemon's house and back. That was a mistake. You've been my partner in this, and I should have told you what would be happening. But Chikorita, Professor Elm is suggesting I travel through Johto to battle gym leaders, and I'm actually considering it. But I want to include you in this decision. Would you..." _Why was this question so hard to ask?_ "Would you be happier going back to the lab? You might be given to another beginning trainer. Or… would you want to stay with me?"

"Chiko!" She ran to me, nuzzling my legs in an attempt to hug me. I reached down and picked her up ( _she's heavier than I expected!_ )

Holding her in my arms, I pulled her close and said quietly, almost in a whisper, "Okay. Maybe we'll go travelling together yeah?" After a moment I put her down but didn't put her back in her Pokeball for now.

"So, you've decided to go for it?" Professor Elm asked.

"Looks like I have, yeah." I laughed lightly, almost not believing the decision I've just made.

"Well, of course, you'll need to let your mum know you're leaving. I'm sure she'll be fine with it." _Um… uh oh?_

"Okay. Well then I'm going to go home and talk to her now." I said, pretending to be confident about this. I started to walk away, almost forgetting Chikorita was still there, out of her Pokeball. After a few steps I remembered and looked behind me to see her not there, then looked down in front of me to see that she'd been following me. I nearly decide to let her stay out, but then I realise Mum probably wouldn't react too well if she sees Chikorita before I tell her about her. I figure I should probably explain it slowly and gently. "Go back in your ball for now, Chikorita." I said, before finding her Pokeball in my bag and returning her.

"Hi, Kris." Professor Elm's assistant said as I walked past.

"Hey,"

"I heard you decided to try the gym challenge. Good choice. Here, take these Pokeballs to start you off, because I'm guessing you're going to be catching more Pokemon along the way." He handed me five Pokeballs. _Catching more Pokemon? I guess I never really thought about that, but of course I'm going to have to catch more. Trainers usually have a team of Pokemon to battle with, not just one. And I could catch different types to get the advantage on lots of different Pokemon. I'm gonna need to memorise those type advantages._

"Thanks," I simply said. After putting the Pokeballs in my bag I walked off, out the lab and towards my house. Standing at the door, I hesitated for a moment. _How's Mum going to react to all this?_

* * *

 **A/N: I know, this part of the story may seem a bit boring, but it's still an important part. And don't worry, it will get better. In the next chapter, Kris will tell her mum about her plan to go travelling to battle the gyms, and then finally, she'll leave to find the first gym. Have a happy Easter and I will see you guys in the next chapter.**


	8. Chapter 8: The Calm

**A/N: I rather enjoyed writing the previous chapter, even though it may have seemed a bit boring since it was just in the lab. But I did enjoy writing that little bit of… foreshadowing, if that's the right word? 'Foreshadowing' is usually a reference to something that hasn't happened yet. Is it still called foreshadowing when the thing it is referencing is a prequel? The prequel hasn't been written yet though, but I do have some ideas for it. Of course, if I end up writing it, it won't be happening for a while, since I don't want to be focusing on two stories at once, even if they are set in the same world. I look forward to writing it, but that won't be for a while, so let's not get ahead of ourselves.**

 **Unfortunately, we have one more short, boring chapter where Kris is still in New Bark Town, but I promise the next chapter will be coming very soon! Maybe even later today if I write as fast as I hope to.**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Pokemon.**

* * *

"Hi, Kris, how was the Professor? I thought you might be helping out a bit longer." Mum said when I walked into the house.

"Um… yeah, he didn't really need me anymore." _Well, it's not a total lie. I finished my errand and now he doesn't need my help anymore._

"Oh, okay. Still, I thought you'd stay longer. You've told me you love hanging out there and talking to the Professor or reading his books."

I shrugged, trying to dismiss the topic. "Need any help with dinner?" _Why am I changing the subject? I need to tell her I'm leaving! Wait, Kris, be reasonable. I don't have to leave right away. I should have dinner with Mum tonight and then leave tomorrow._

"Well, I'm cooking your favourite tonight. I'm guessing you want to help mash the potatoes?"

"Oh, yeah, okay!" I wasn't expecting that. It's not often she cooks my favourite when it's not my birthday or some other special occasion. "Hold on, I'm just going to put my bag in my room." I ran upstairs to my room and put down my bag. I opened it up and looked at what I now had. Two berries (one from a tree near Cherrygrove and one from the man who lives on Route 30 who gave me a berry from his tree), a potion from Professor Elm's assistant and… six Pokeballs. One was Chikorita's, the other five were empty ones Professor Elm's assistant gave me. But they all looked the same. I knew I had to do something to tell the balls apart. I picked up each one and tried releasing Chikorita until I found the right one.

"Chiko!"

"Shhh!" I shushed her. "Mum doesn't know I have you yet, so keep quiet for now, okay?" I whispered. She nodded. Now that I knew which ball hers was, I sat it off to the side, away from the others for now. Then, feeling a wave of creativity hit me, I rummaged through some stuff and found the make-your-own-stickers kit I got for a birthday years ago. Basically, they're plain white stickers that you can draw on. I grabbed a green highlighter and used it to give a small sticker a green background. Then, with a black pen, I drew the silhouette of a leaf, like the one of Chikorita's Pokeball. Then finally, I peeled off the sticker and stuck it onto the Pokeball. _Perfect. Now I'll always know this one is Chikorita's._

I looked around the room and realised Chikorita was still out, watching me with fascination. "Okay, I think you should go back in your ball now." I told her. I hesitated for a moment before saying, "Or… would you prefer to stay here in my room." She nodded, remembering I had told her to be quiet. "Okay. You can stay out of your ball but only if you promise me you'll be quiet and stay in this room unless I come back and tell you that you can leave the room. Promise?" Another nod. "…Okay. I'll be back a bit later."

I headed downstairs and helped with dinner. Eventually, dinner was ready. Before we sat down to eat, I excused myself, saying I needed to go to the bathroom so I could go check on Chikorita. Well, it wasn't really a lie, I did need to go, but I also stopped off in my room on the way back. She was fine and had stayed put like I told her to. But I realised I was going to have to tell Mum about her. Sooner, rather than later. _Also, Chikorita hasn't eaten since before I got her. She must be hungry. And I don't have any Pokemon food! I suppose after I tell Mum about her I could go to the lab and ask Professor Elm if he could spare some? No, I couldn't do that. Well, there's probably going to be leftovers from dinner, maybe she'll be able to eat that?_ So, with that idea in mind, I went back down to eat dinner with Mum.

"So, how was the Professor?" Mum asked as we sat down to eat.

"…Fine." I answered.

"You helped him out with something, right? Anything interesting?"

"No, not really. Just some simple tasks like usual."

"Really? When he told me he needed your help, he made it sound important."

"He makes everything sound important. Remember last time there was an 'emergency'?" I made air quotes at the word 'emergency', since that was what he had called it. "It turned out he'd forgotten the password to his email. I had to show him the 'forgot password' option."

"Oh, right. With the silly things he does, sometimes you forget he's really quite an expert." We continued eating in silence for a while. I ate fast, since it was my favourite meal: sausages, mashed potato, some pumpkin and an assortment of small vegetables such as peas, corn and small pieces of broccoli. With gravy all over everything, of course. I never understood why some kids don't like vegetables. And where did that stereotype about kids hating broccoli come from? I like broccoli. I don't care for brussel sprouts though. But of course, the best part of this meal in the mashed potato. And the gravy just makes it even better. And if I get a piece of a sausage, cover it in mashed potato and then cover that in gravy… amazingness in one mouthful! Mum ate a bit slower than I did. Eventually, though, she was almost finished, while I had slowed down and was almost full. "You know, I know." Mum suddenly said with a smile.

"Know what?" I asked, as if I'd forgotten about everything that happened today. I was too busy eating more mashed potato. _I'm running out of gravy on my plate. Maybe I should pour on a bit more? I think there's more in the jug. Oh yeah, and what's Mum talking about?_

"Oh, about your little trip to Route 30. Where's your little friend, anyway?" _Oh no._

"How do you know about… Mum I'm sorry, I didn't mean to lie to you. Well, I mean, I knew I was lying, I just, I don't know, didn't want to tell you about it? I know, that's not a good reason for lying."

"Yeah, yeah." Mum waved it off as if it wasn't important. "So, where is he? Or she? How was your errand? Did you have to battle wild Pokemon along the way?"

"Yeah, I battled some wild Pokemon in the tall grass. And it was actually so much fun, and – wait, aren't you mad?"

"Well, for one thing, you didn't really lie. I knew you'd be helping the Professor."

"Yeah but you thought I'd be **with** him. Not over on Route 30 battling wild Pokemon on my own."

"There's nothing wrong with that. There's no rules against you battling, you are over ten. And I'm sure Professor Elm wouldn't have given you a Pokemon is he didn't think you could handle it."

"How did you know?" I had to ask. I figured she must have noticed it in my voice when I called her before I left New Bark Town. Mother's intuition or something like that. Or maybe I'm just a terrible liar.

"The police were going around town asking everyone if they knew anything about some red-haired boy who stole from the lab. I went to the lab to see if you and Professor Elm were okay, assuming you were there with him when it happened. But he told me he'd sent you out on an errand to see Mr. Pokemon on Route 30."

"Yeah, apparently Mr. Pokemon had found an egg which he believes to be a Pokemon egg. He wanted me to bring it back to Professor Elm for him." I grew more excited telling Mum about this. "And Professor Oak was there, too! And he gave me a Pokedex! And when I got back to the lab, Professor Elm suggested that I…" _Come on, just say it. Just tell her._ "That I go and challenge the gyms. That would mean leaving home and travelling Johto to go to all eight gyms. I hope you're okay with it, because I really think that I want to try it."

"You know, when you were little, I thought you'd be obsessed with Pokemon like the other kids. I guess I just had this strange stereotype in my head of a kid who leaves home as soon as they're ten and never looks back, excited to start a journey with Pokemon. It wasn't until you turned ten that I started to see you for who you really were. You weren't rushing off to get a Pokemon. You were happy living here and you didn't want to leave."

"Not at first, no." I agreed. "But now I'm starting to feel like I do want to leave. Not to completely change who I am and never look back, but rather to discover who I am now. It's not that I want to leave you, but I feel like… this something I need to try."

"I understand. You should go, have an adventure. And if it doesn't work out, if you discover that who you are is someone who doesn't want to travel with Pokemon all the time, well, you can always stop and come home." Mum smiled. "But I know you won't."

"You don't know that. I don't know if I can do this. All I know is that I want to try."

"Then try. That's all you need to do. Just do your best and work hard alongside your Pokemon. Speaking of which, where is he? Or she?"

"She." I clarified. "You wanna meet her?"

"I'm done anyway." Mum said, picking up her plate and standing up.

"So am I." Hearing this, she took my plate as well as hers to the bench where containers to pack leftover were waiting. Mum always made way too much so we would always have leftovers. "Oh, Chikorita! Come down here!" I called out, loud enough for her to hear me from my room. I head the pitter-patter of light footsteps on the stairs before seeing her bound into the room.

"Chiko!" She ran over to me, but then, seeing Mum, moved to stand behind me.

"It's okay, Chikorita, that's my Mum. She's nice." I bent down and pat her head.

"Chiko?" She stepped forwards towards Mum, who bent down and slowly reached out and pat her on the head.

"I think I'm going to quickly go next door to the lab and ask Professor Elm what I should give her to eat. I may have to ask him if I could take some of the Pokemon food he has, since I haven't bought any. I could give him the money to cover for it."

"Good idea." I ran up to my room to grab the pocket money I'd saved up. I went out the house and towards the lab, but before I could walk in, I looked down and noticed a little someone beside my feet. "Chikorita! You followed me?"

"Chiko!"

"Well, thanks for wanting to stay with me, I guess. Just make sure I know where you are next time." I went into the lab, Chikorita still following behind me.

"Oh, hi Kris." Professor Elm said. "I figured you wouldn't be leaving straight away."

"I think I'll leave tomorrow morning." I told him. "Anyway, Chikorita hasn't eaten since I got her, and I don't have any Pokemon food at home. Do you think you could give me some? I could cover the cost of it."

"Why didn't I think of that? I should have given you some earlier." He went to a cupboard and pulled out two packets. "Each of these packets should be enough for one meal. Here. Give her one tonight and keep the other for the morning."

"How much does Pokemon food usually cost?"

"Not too much, I suppose. You'll be earning money from battling, so I'm sure you'll have enough along your travels. These packets cost 500P each."

"Here," I dug through my pocket money and found 1000P. "Thank you. Come on, Chikorita." I took the packets of food and went back to my house. I opened one and poured the contents into a bowl and put it on the floor. Mum had packed up the leftovers into a container.

"How about you take this with you when you leave tomorrow? Then you won't have to spend money on tomorrow's lunch. Surely a Pokemon Centre would have a microwave you could use to heat it up?"

"Probably." Though, when I thought about it, I realised I had no idea what most of a Pokemon Centre looked like. I'd only been in the reception room and hadn't looked at the restaurant area or the hotel area. But they'd probably have a microwave I could use.

I decided to spend some time looking at the Pokedex. I figured out how to check the list Professor Elm had shown me, where only Chikorita and Cyndaquil's entries were shown. I figured out how to check information on Chikorita, showing a list of attacks she would know. I found a sort of glossary, explaining what certain items do which a trainer might have. I went back to Chikorita's page on the list and read everything that was there. It said, 'It loves to bask in the sunlight. It uses the leaf on its head to seek out warm places.' I smiled. I loved learning about my new friend.

Finally, I led Chikorita back up to my room. I found a blanket and cushion and built a makeshift bed on the floor for Chikorita. It wasn't that late, but I felt like going to bed. I wanted to get up early tomorrow morning.

"Right after breakfast, Chikorita. That's when we'll leave. And we'll eat breakfast as soon as we get up. Well… right, we would still say goodbye to Mum before we go."

"Chiko," She wandered around the room before sitting down on the blanket on the floor. I went through my drawers to find some pyjamas. I grabbed a comfy pair of light pink shorts and a purple top. I changed into them and took my hair out of the ponytails. I laid down in bed and closed my eyes.

"Goodnight, Chikorita."

* * *

 **A/N: Now that I've been writing some more trainer battles, (keep in mind I like to have a few chapters in reserve and so I've written a bit more than what has been uploaded) I have a question for you guys. Of course, I've been trying to keep the story as detailed as I can. I mean, if you saw a sentence like, 'I walked through Route 30, battling a few trainers along the way until I reached Route 31.' You'd probably think, 'that's not very detailed, those battles should actually be written about.' If I write about every single battle with every random NPC, it could get a bit boring and repetitive. It's the same kind of problem with the wild battles. I tried to write a few wild battles, but really, if you were playing the game, you'd probably get into more wild battles than Kris did, but you wouldn't want to read about all of those battles. It's the same reason why you see wild battles edited out in let's plays, and why people in a let's play grind offscreen. Wild battles are boring and repetitive, so I won't be writing many of them now that there are going to be trainers challenging Kris along the routes. It's the trainer battles I'm not sure what to do with. Of course, I'm going to be writing important battles in detail, like rival battles and gym battles, but what should I do with all of the meaningless NPCs that don't add much to the story? I don't want it to look like I'm rushing through the story, but I don't want to write every little detail of every trainer battle, so I need to find some middle ground. Any advice about that would be great because I've been currently trying to write the battles on Route 30.**

 **In case it wasn't explained properly, her Pokedex has a bit more to it than the one in the game. Her Pokedex basically works as the pause menu. I figured, if we get to check item descriptions in the bag if we don't know what something does, she should be able to do the same, which is why her Pokedex has a glossary for her. Plus, it shows her party screen. And the Pokedex shows a lot more information on Pokemon than the one in the game does, such as a list of what moves a Pokemon can learn.**

 **Oh, and by the way, don't even bother to ask me what Pokemon those sausages they had for dinner were made of. I don't know, I don't want to try and explain that. Basically, I just wanted to give Kris my favourite meal.**

 **And I always wondered why they never bother to address the fact that Pokeballs look the same. How do trainers tell them apart? In the games it isn't mentioned at all. In the anime, Ash seems to remember exactly which is which, probably because he has them in a specific order on his belt. And then there's one of my favourite of Ash's rivals, Ritchie, who puts stickers on his Pokeballs to tell them apart, so that's where I got that idea.**

 **Also, fun fact, I was originally going to name this chapter something along the lines of 'The Calm Before the Real Adventure Begins,' because that's exactly what this chapter is, a calm moment of rest before she leaves home in the morning. But there must be a character limit because it wouldn't let me type all of that, so I settled for just 'The Calm.' But there you go, that's the meaning behind that name in case you were wondering.**

 **Anyway, as always, thanks for reading, and I always love getting reviews. See you in the next chapter where Kris finally starts to make her way to Violet City (and finally considers herself to be a trainer).**


	9. Chapter 9: The Adventure Begins

**A/N: Even though I haven't got much more written, I did say yesterday that the next chapter might be coming that same day, so even though it was just a 'maybe,' I thought you might like it if I upload this now. However, I will warn you that the wait between uploads will probably get longer as the story progresses, since I've noticed that these newer chapters have been taking a bit longer to write. Maybe it's because of trainer battles, which I find aren't as simple to write as the parts where Kris isn't battling. When she's not battling, it just comes to me so easily, her thoughts, her actions, it all seems obvious to me sometimes, so I write it so quickly. Battles aren't so simple. Usually I look up the attacks the Pokemon in the battle can learn so I don't, for example, make Rattata use bite when, as it turns out, (according to Bulbapedia) it isn't one of the moves Rattata can learn by level up. It can, however, learn hyper fang and super fang. Strange, but whatever, good thing I looked it up.**

 **By the way, in case it wasn't obvious, I'll be using an underlined P for the symbol for Pokedollars. So, when there's a** **P** **after a number, that's what that means.**

 **I don't really know when I'll have the next chapter ready, but I'll write as much as I can and try not to keep you waiting too long.**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Pokemon.**

* * *

As I wake up, I notice a warmth beside and partly on top of my feet. I lift my head up to see a green shape leaning on me.

"Good morning, Chikorita." I said with a yawn. She stirs slightly, but I don't think she's completely awake. "Someone's been sleeping on my bed, and she's still there!" I say in a childish voice, referencing the well-known children's story of Goldilocks, who went into the house of Mama Ursaring, Papa Ursaring and Baby Teddiursa and ate their porridge, sat on their chairs and slept in their beds. I smiled as I realised that Chikorita must have decided that she wanted to be close to me and so came to sleep on me bed with me. Plus, my bed must be more comfortable than the makeshift bed I made for her out of a cushion and blanket on the floor. Finally, after a yawn and a stretch, Chikorita walked to the edge of the bed, jumped down, and then looked up at me.

Feeling a wave of excitement as I remembered just what had happened yesterday and what would be happening today, I flung the covers aside and jumped out of bed. Careful not to trip over Chikorita, I quickly made my way around my room to gather my clothes for today. Since I usually wore light colours, I changed into yellow shorts and a red shirt. It was a warm enough morning and I wasn't cold yet, so instead of putting on a jacket for now I instead put my white jacket next to my bag, knowing I'll need it later. I brushed my hair and then grabbed two hairties and left them around my wrist for now to tie my hair in my usual two ponytails later. I finally looked down at Chikorita, who had been looking around the room as if waiting for me.

"Come on. Breakfast?"

"Chiko!" I headed down to the kitchen with Chikorita bounding along ahead of me. I look to the kitchen, where I see Mum, who seems to have also just gotten there as I see here start to kettle to make herself a coffee.

"Good morning," She says.

"Good morning," _What else is there to say? What do you even say to someone when you're going to be leaving them soon?_ I grab two pieces of bread and put them in the toaster. While I wait for my toast, I pour the contents of the packet of Pokemon food I got from Professor Elm into a bowl and put it on the floor for Chikorita. When my toast was ready, I spread Bluk Berry jam on it and then poured myself a glass of Oran Berry juice.

"Here, put this on your Pokegear." Mum said and handed me a cartridge to install some sort of app on my Pokegear. I grabbed my Pokegear and put in the cartridge to see what it was. "It's a money transfer app. A lot of travellers use them, so they don't have to carry around their money. Instead, the money's all digital. They have a device in shops so that you can pay just by scanning your Pokegear. And after a Pokemon battle when the losing trainer pays the winner, they tend to just transfer the money by typing in the other person's account number. The best part is, if you ever want to send money home to me to save up your money, you just click on my name, since you can save account numbers under a name like you do with phone numbers, and you can send money through."

"It looks great Mum, thanks." I said, looking around on the new app.

"And look, you've already got a transfer. I sent you 3000P to get you started." I looked at my balance to see that I did in fact have 3000P in my account.

After I finished my toast, I took my plate to the sink and washed it. Seeing that Chikorita was done eating, I then washed her bowl and then put her into her Pokeball. It occurred to me that I'd probably need something to give her food in if I'm not in a town, so I found a small plastic bowl and took it. I also noticed that even though Chikorita had stopped eating anymore and was clearly full, there was a bit of food left in her bowl. _Had I given her too much? Or maybe she's just not hungry._ Regardless of the reason, I grabbed a container and saved her leftovers for if she wants a snack for later.

Finally, I went back to my room to pack my bag. I figured I'd need a bigger bag than my usual bag, so I grabbed a backpack. I packed some essential things, like a few sets of clothes including my favourite pyjamas. Plus, my hairbrush, my toothbrush and a tube of toothpaste, as well as a few spare hairties in case I lost some. Then I packed all the Pokemon-related items, such as Chikorita's bowl and the Pokeballs and potion Professor Elm's assistant gave me. But I slipped Chikorita's Pokeball just in a small pocket in the front of the bag, knowing I'd need to grab it quickly if I were attacked. I considered, but then decided against bringing a sleeping bag, seeing as I don't think the routes in Johto are too long that I'd be too far away from a town when I needed to go to sleep. Deciding I should have something just in case of emergency, I grabbed my favourite blanket, which if need be, I could have one side of it underneath me and fold it over to cover myself similar to how a sleeping bag works. The blanket wasn't very thick and so, when folded the right way, didn't take up much space in my bag. I tied my hair into my usual two ponytails, put on my yellow hat, put on my socks and shoes and my white jacket, hung my Pokegear around my neck. It was a weird feeling. It was like I was scared to admit that I was ready. I was ready to go, ready to leave home.

"Don't forget this," Mum said as I got back downstairs. I put the container of leftovers into my bag. "You can save money on lunch today."

"Don't worry, I won't spend money willy-nilly on restaurants all the time. I can always make something to eat." _Even just something as simple as buying a loaf of bread to make sandwiches with_ , I thought. _One loaf of bread can last a while and could save me the money I would spend at restaurants._ "I am going to miss your cooking, though."

"That's why I made your favourite dinner last night. As soon as I found out you had a Pokemon, I just knew you'd want to be a trainer and go travelling. I knew you wouldn't be able to resist. So, I made your favourite as a nice little send-off, and to celebrate the start of what could be an adventure and an amazing experience for you."

I smiled at her words and set my bag down on the floor beside me. I closed the distance between us and wrapped my arms around her. We were never a very huggy family, but this was just one of those moments. After a few seconds we pulled away and I picked up my bag and flung it over my shoulder.

"Bye Mum," I let out a small laugh. "I'll call you as much as you want me to, so don't worry. It'll be like I'm still here."

"I hope not. This is your time, Kris, to try things out on your own, learn to be independent in ways you may not expect. But of course, I'll be here, and you can call if you need anything. Though I don't know much about Pokemon, so with those kinds of problems you should just call Professor Elm. But emotional support? I'm here if you need it. Bye, Kristal. Good luck out there battling gym leaders." I nodded, and with that, walked out of the house. And that was it. Just like that, I'd left.

Strangely enough, I wasn't as nervous as I thought I'd be. I thought about this as I walked through Route 29. A small bird Pokemon, like the one I'd battled before, flew over to attack. I ducked out of the way and pulled out my Pokedex to finally find out what it was. 'Pidgey', the 'tiny bird Pokemon', was what I read on the screen. I grabbed Chikorita's Pokeball, more excited to battle wild Pokemon than I was before. _I'm going to need all the practice I can get if I'm going to be challenging gym leaders._

"Go, Chikorita!"

"Chiko!"

"Razor leaf!" She shot leaves at the Pidgey, but this one was smart. It flapped its wings to create a gust of wind that blew the leaves away before flying forward for a tackle. I watched as it got closer to Chikorita, about to hit her… "Jump!" I called out. She quickly jumped up and landed on the Pidgey's back. Being a small bird, it began to struggle to stay in the air, being weighed down by Chikorita. As it drifted towards the ground, Chikorita jumped down and then tried another razor leaf, this time a direct hit. "Nice one, Chikorita. Okay, now tackle it." The Pidgey attempted to get back in the air again, but before it could get too far off the ground, Chikorita jumped up and tackled it, and it fell to the ground again, this time staying down. "Yes! Nice job Chikorita!" I returned her to her Pokeball and kept walking.

I once again noticed the building that leads to Route 46 and thought maybe I should look and see what it looks like that way, even if I'm not going that way. I went into the building and out through the door on the other side. I looked around but couldn't see that much as there was a cliff not too far in front of me. Realising this was basically a dead end, I went back into the building.

"Lost?" Asked the man at the counter in the building.

"Um…" I wasn't really sure how to respond. I wasn't quite lost, I knew that was Route 46. I guess I was just looking around. "Not exactly. Just exploring a bit. Not sure where to go next. I want to try challenging the gyms. Not sure where to go first. Is there any particular order people challenge them in?"

"Not really, people just go for whichever is closest and get to them all by travelling all over the region." He told me. "I'd recommend Falkner's gym in Violet City to start off with, I'd say it's the closest, unless you wanted to climb that cliff to get to Blackthorn City. Besides, I hear Clair's dragon Pokemon are pretty tough, especially for a first-time gym challenger."

"So, it seems Violet City's the way to go. Is it far past Route 30? I've only been as far as Mr. Pokemon's house." It then occurred to me that I did have a map on my Pokegear. I opened up the map feature and looked for Violet City. "Oh, it doesn't look too far."

"Exactly. Route 31's quite a short one. You shouldn't have too much trouble getting to Violet City."

"Thank you, bye." I never understood why some people didn't like asking for directions. It's kind of fun, provided that the person you ask is pleasant of course, in which case you feel less like a helpless wreck who doesn't know where to go and more like you're having a nice conversation with a friendly stranger who is helping you out. I walked off and out of the building, looking at my Pokegear and reading its description of Violet City. Its slogan is, 'The City of nostalgic scents.'

As I walked along through the grass, I nearly tripped on something and looked away from my Pokegear to see that it was another one of that brown furry Pokemon from the first time I ever battled a wild Pokemon. I checked the Pokedex to see that it was called Sentret, the scout Pokemon. I once again grabbed Chikorita's Pokeball.

"Go Chikorita! Razor Leaf!"

"Chiko!" The Sentret tried to attack first, lunging forward for a tackle or a similar physical attack, but was hit with leaves that Chikorita shot.

"Sentret!" It shouted.

"Now tackle it!" Hearing my command as a warning, the Sentret curls itself into a ball in order to be less hurt by Chikorita's attack. It then uncurled itself and scratched Chikorita. "Vine whip, and then razor leaf!" Chikorita used her vines to knock the Sentret back away before shooting it with a barrage of leaves. It fell to the grass, defeated. "Nice job Chikorita. Return."

I returned her to her Pokeball and kept walking. I noticed the berry tree I had taken an Oran Berry from yesterday had regrown its berries, and so I went over to it and picked another. _I guess it's true that these trees regrow their berries every day._ After taking the Oran Berry and putting it into my bag, I walked the rest of the short distance into Cherrygrove City without any wild Pokemon hassle. Even though I didn't think Chikorita had taken that much damage in the battles we'd had so far today, just to be on the safe side I stopped off at the Pokemon Centre.

 _Wait… what is that lady at the counter going to think?_ I wondered, as I walked toward the Pokemon Centre. _Hang on, maybe she'll happen to not be working today._ But I was proven wrong when I walked in and recognised the same woman at the counter. _Okay, okay, so maybe this won't be so bad. Maybe this is one of those few times when joking around might be a good idea. Like how people say if you fall over in public you should just laugh it off so it's not so embarrassing. Yeah, that's what I'll do, just joke around. What's the worst that could happen?_

"So, what happened to not being a trainer?" She asked, taking the Pokeball from my hand without me even having to ask her to heal Chikorita.

"Eh, I got bored of that." I shrugged. "Thought it was time for a change, try something new." _Wait no, now she's gonna think I just randomly decided to try being a trainer on a whim. I'm gonna seem like some rookie who doesn't know what they're doing. Well, to be fair, I_ _ **am**_ _technically a rookie, having just started, but I don't want her to look down on me as if I don't know what I'm doing, I_ _ **am**_ _still a trainer. Ugh, why do I think so much about what other people think of me?_

"Mm hm," she just says, walking away with the Pokeball. I go and sit down and wait the few minutes it takes until she calls out, "Chikorita's trainer," There was no pause in her sentence like the first time I came here. No more uncertainty now, because now I really was Chikorita's trainer. I happily went to the counter to get the ball back from her and left the Pokemon Centre.

I was excited. So excited to explore the rest of Route 30 that I didn't see yesterday and then see Route 31. It seemed like such a small thing, seeing routes 30 and 31, but to me, it sounded so exciting! And I was so excited to get to Violet City and see a place I'd never been. That's where all of this excitement came from. I was so excited to see new places, to travel, to explore, and to really be on an adventure.

* * *

 **A/N: When I was a little kid playing Crystal for the first time, the entrance to Route 46 confused me when I first saw it, since it seemed to be a dead end and there wasn't really anything of interest there (except the grass where Chuggaaconroy found his Phanpy right after he cut the recording). So, that's why I had Kris look around there.**

 **I know, not much happened in this chapter. Originally this was going to be part of the next chapter, but then I realised the chapter would be really long, so I had to find a good place to split them into two. Next time, we will finally see some more trainer battles, her only trainer battle so far was against Silver and that didn't go so well, but we'll see how this goes. And finally, we'll make it to Violet City! See you then!**


	10. Chapter 10: Battles with the Youngsters

**Disclaimer: I don't own Pokemon.**

* * *

I broke out into a run and ran and ran into Route 30. I ran up the small hill to go past the cliff. I stopped for a moment to look at the house of the man who had given me one of his berries. "Feel free to pick from my tree whenever you're nearby." Was what he had said. _So, I suppose I should take a berry from his tree? He told me I can, so I guess I should… help myself?_ Slowly at first, I reached for the tree, which had re-grown the Oran Berries that had been picked yesterday. Suddenly, some sort of instinct seemed to kick in and I picked a berry and put it in my bag. _Besides, I heard most people grow berries to help out trainers anyway. Take one and only one as you pass by a berry tree. That's the unspoken rule everyone knows trainers follow._

As I walked through the grass beside the house I was attacked by a white-spotted red insect. Pulling out my Pokedex I learnt that it was a Ledyba, the five star Pokemon. ' _Five star'? So, does it eat at restaurants and sleep at hotels? Only in five star restaurants and five star hotels of course. Of course, I had to think of a dumb joke because my thoughts are dumb sometimes._ Anyway, while these dumb thoughts were running through my head, I had pulled out Chikorita's Pokeball.

"Go Chikorita! Use razor leaf!" _Is that becoming my go-to move now? Weird._

"Chiko!" Chikorita used razor leaf as soon as she came out of the ball, but the Ledyba created a pretty but powerful burst of wind that blew the leaves back at Chikorita and knocked her off-balance. She fell down but then stumbled back onto her feet and tried once again to shoot leaves at the Ledyba, which still didn't go so well.

"Um… use vine whip to knock it out of the sky." Chikorita extended one of its vines and tried to hit the small, flying target above her. When hitting seemed difficult, Chikorita switched tactics and tried grabbing, extending a second vine to trap the Ledyba between them. The vines were wrapped around it, which stopped it from creating the wind that had been damaging Chikorita so much. _It must have been of a super effective type against a grass type like Chikorita_ , I thought, remembering that some types were more effective against certain types. The Ledyba was trapped in the vines, but it wouldn't stay in there forever, so I had to come up with an idea before it got out. Checking the list of attacks Chikorita could use on my Pokedex, I considered a few, before deciding on a plan. And just in time, too. The Ledyba fought its way out of the weak vines that were struggling to hold it still and then flew towards Chikorita to try some sort of direct attack. "Try poison powder," I said. As the Ledyba got closer, Chikorita released some sort of purple dust. After the Ledyba inhaled the powder, it seemed to be moving slower and didn't quite land the hit it intended to. "Tackle," Chikorita hit it with a tackle and the Ledyba was defeated, and it flew off to get away. In the direction of Mr. Pokemon's house, I noticed. "Nice job, Chikorita." I returned her to her Pokeball and kept walking, keeping the Pokeball in my hand.

I was soon met with the split path which I knew led to Mr. Pokemon's house on the right. Remembering there being a dead end behind Mr. Pokemon's house, I knew that the only thing to do was to take to left path. I noticed a few trainers scattered along the path and hoped I could just walk past them towards Route 31. I looked at my Pokegear map and saw that while Route 30 and 31 weren't separated by a town or any such landmark, but Route 30 became 31 when the path turned left near Dark Cave. I recognised the one nearest to me as one of the two trainers who had been battling and blocking the path yesterday. _In a strange way, he helped me_ , I realised. _He forced me to go the other way, which was actually the right way to Mr. Pokemon's house._ I walked on along the path, and nearly jumped out of my skin at the sudden voice.

"Hey, you're a trainer, right." He said, saying it as if it weren't really a question, as if he already knew the answer. "I challenge you to a battle." _Darn it!_ Chikorita's Pokeball was still in my hand, so I couldn't deny it. _What am I afraid of? It's a battle, it's what I'm supposed to do as a trainer. What did I think I would end up doing at those gyms? And it's not like it's my first battle either. Though that's just it, my first battle didn't go so well._ "Girl, calm down, you look worried. And what's your name? I'm Joey." He extended his hand, probably realising an introduction would be less nerve-wracking for me than an outright challenge.

"Kris," I said, shaking his hand. "And uh, I've only got one Pokemon, so uh-" I'm glad he then interrupted me, because I have no idea where I was planning of going with that sentence.

"Me too, let's battle." I felt a small wave of relief when I realised that this guy was probably also fairly new to this.

"Okay," I agreed. "Come on out, Chikorita."

"Chiko!" She said happily when she came out of the Pokeball.

"Go, Rattata." He said, grabbing a Pokeball of his own. I watched as a small purple creature with red eyes and two large front teeth came out of the Pokeball. Remembering what he'd just called it, I looked for 'Rattata' in my Pokedex to see that it had in fact been added to the list now that there was one in front of me. _He sounds pretty excited._

"You sound excited," I said, while quickly looking at information on Rattata before switching back to the list of Chikorita's attacks. _Why did I say that out loud?_ He smiled.

"Well, I lost my battle yesterday, so today I've been training against wild Pokemon because I want Rattata to get stronger." I could tell he really wanted to win this. But so did I, I realised. Some instinct inside me seemed to be telling me, _you can't battle any differently just to be nice. That wouldn't be the right thing to do. He wouldn't really be winning if he won when I wasn't giving it my all. So let's do this!_ I looked at his Rattata, then back at Joey, and realised that even though we had already sent out our Pokemon, we hadn't actually started battling yet. _He must be new to this too._ Joey seemed to notice the awkward silence and spoke up. "So… ready?"

"Ready!" I tried to sound enthusiastic. I realised that the best thing to do might just be to drown out my thoughts and act on instincts. _Somehow when I'm battling, it all works out okay in the end, so maybe I should just go for it._ Realising I could now make a move, I tried to do just that. "Chikorita, tackle!"

"Rattata, you tackle too!" The two Pokemon collided head on. Rattata jumped back and shouted, "Ratta!" "Quick attack!" Joey shouted. Chikorita tried to dodge, but Rattata was faster this time and landed a perfect hit on her before jumping back to prepare for another attack.

"Chiko!" She shouted as she was hit. But then I had an idea.

"Poison powder!"

"Quick attack again!" Joey shouted at the same time as my command. His voice was louder than mind and for a moment I wondered if Chikorita heard me, but then I knew she had when I saw the purple powder land on Rattata. At first it seemed unaffected and quickly ran forward for another quick attack. But then I realised that Rattata was moving slower and Chikorita managed to dodge out of the way this time.

"Great, now use vine whip," Chikorita extended her vines, wrapped two around Rattata and threw it ahead, Rattata landing on its four feet but sliding along the grass. It seemed to be getting more tired by the second, probably from the poison.

"Uh, um, tackle!" Joey said, sounding more panicked.

"Razor leaf," Rattata ran towards Chikorita for a tackle, slower than it was moving before, I'd noticed, but was hit by Chikorita's razor leaf. Defeated, Rattata's legs gave out and it fell to the grass. Joey looked down to see if it was okay before returning it to its Pokeball.

"Well, congrats, Kris, you win." He said, grabbing out his Pokegear. "I heard 200P is suitable for a 1v1 battle, right?" I shrugged.

"I don't know," I said quietly. "If you think that's fine, I'll trust your judgement." _I really need to learn more about the value of a Pokedollar, so I don't end up getting stiffed by any not-so-pleasant trainers I might go up against._

"Okay, have you got the Pokegear banking app? Just type your account number here and I'll send it through." I quickly checked my own Pokegear to remind myself of my account number before typing it into his. Within a few second, I saw the 200P appear in my account, totalling as 3200. _That reminds me, once I get to Violet City I should look through a mart and stock up on some food for Chikorita and see what other items they have._ "Hey, wanna register our phone numbers too? Then once I train Rattata a bit more I'll call you, I want a rematch." Joey suggested. The idea of a rematch actually sounded pretty fun, battling someone I already knew and seeing how much we'd improved since the first battle.

"Sure," I said, and we registered each other in our Pokegears.

"I'm gonna head back to Cherrygrove to heal, then I'll head back into the grass for some more training. I'll call you when I want a rematch." Joey said before walking off towards Cherrygrove City. I looked to Chikorita, who I realised must be tired after battling Ledyba and then Rattata.

"You tired?" I asked. "I have a potion if you want it."

"Chiko," she nodded. I looked through my bag until I found the potion Professor Elm's assistant gave me yesterday. I had seen how it worked from the times when I would be helping at the lab while the Professor is taking care of a Pokemon. I sprayed it over Chikorita until it was all gone, then returned her to her Pokeball. It's like taking medicine when you're sick. You can't just take half the recommended dosage and expect to feel a little bit better. You're supposed to take all of what is recommended and then it'll make you feel better. It won't work properly if you take less. It's the same with potions. If you only spray half, it won't do its job. You have to use it all to get the desired effect. I put the empty potion canister back into my bag for now until I could put it in a bin.

I walked a bit further along the simple, linear path, and noticed another boy nearby. I recognised him as the boy Joey had been battling yesterday. _Should I challenge him to a battle? That's what trainers are supposed to do, right? Although, Joey did say he lost that battle, so this guy's probably pretty good._

"Hey, you! I saw your battle against Joey. I challenge you!" He shouted. I smiled and forgot about my earlier worries.

"Well, you're definitely enthusiastic. Sure. I'm Kris, by the way."

"The name's Mikey. How many Pokemon have you caught? I've got two." My worries came back as I realised I never really knew what happens when one trainer has more Pokemon than the other. _Do they still battle, with one trainer using more? No, that wouldn't really be fair though, would it?_ I decided to just tell him I only had one to see what he'll say to that.

"I've only got one Pokemon. I haven't caught anymore yet."

"Okay, then it'll just be a 1v1. It'll choose…" he grabbed two Pokeballs from his pocket and looked at them for a moment before deciding. "This one," he said, putting one back in his pocket.

"Go, Chikorita," I said, sending her back out.

"Go, Pidgey," He said, releasing a Pidgey from its ball. _I've battled two Pidgeys before, so maybe this won't be so hard._ But then as I check the information in the description of the flying type in the glossary, I realise the flying type attacks are super effective against grass types. _Uh oh. But yet, I managed to beat Pidgeys before, so maybe Pidgeys are just a weak enough flying type that it won't matter. Or maybe a Pidgey trained by a trainer will be harder to beat than the wild ones I've fought off. So, don't let your guard down. Just go for it!_ Luckily it wasn't until just after I finished my little mental pep talk that Mikey called an attack.

"Quick attack!" Knowing how fast quick attack usually is from Joey's Rattata, I knew Chikorita wouldn't have enough time to dodge out the way. Just in time, I thought of a counterattack.

"Use vine whip to block it," Chikorita seemed to understand what I wanted her to do and so, instead of using her vines to grab the opponent like she's done before, she held her vines in front of her, creating a shield of vines that Pidgey flew into. "Now tackle," She retracted her vines and then tackled the surprised Pidgey which fell to the ground.

"Wing attack!"

"Razor leaf!" Chikorita prevented the super effective flying-type attack by shooting leaves which hit Pidgey before it had a chance to hit Chikorita. It once again fell to the ground and stayed down this time. Mikey looked shocked for a moment before speaking up.

"Well, nice job. You seem pretty experienced actually." _Me, experienced? But I'm not, I just started. So, somehow, I seem more experienced than I am. Maybe because he saw me beat two trainers in a row? I'm not going to win every battle though, that was just… a fluke. Yeah. I'm not as good at this as I pretend to be._ He returned Pidgey before reaching for his Pokegear. "Account number?" He asked, holding out the Pokegear for me to enter my number so he could transfer the prize money. I typed it in, handed it back and then checked my own Pokegear to see that another 200P had been added to my balance, totalling 3400P. _Good_ , I thought. _I'll need to be consistently winning enough battles to have enough money to have food for Chikorita every day, plus buying food for myself, and then there could be any items I should get, like more potions or something. I should check out the mart once I get to Violet City._

"Thanks," I didn't really know what else to say to Mikey. I returned Chikorita to her Pokeball. I was starting to get used to this.

"I think I'll do some training," he said. "Or maybe I'll give Joey the rematch he asked for, even though I won last time. He's always boasting about that Rattata of his, but I hope he will have caught another Pokemon before I rematch him, 'cause then we can have a 2v2." I assumed '2v2' was a phrase that trainers used. Backtracking on what he'd said, I figured out that he meant a battle in which the trainers used 2 Pokemon each, unlike the one-on-one battles I'd had so far. I remembered Joey mentioning that he'd heard that 200P is "suitable for a 1v1 battle." _So, does that mean there's more prize money when there are more Pokemon involved in the battle? That's good to remember for later._

"Alright, good luck with your training," I said, starting to walk off, backwards, still looking at him. _Why am I walking like this?_

"See you around, Kris," he said as I kept walking. I turned around to see that there was a girl just in front of me. I looked at her for a moment, unsure of whether to challenge her to a battle. She wasn't holding any Pokeballs, though. _How do you really know if someone's a trainer? Well, most people wouldn't be out in a route like this one where wild Pokemon could attack unless they had Pokemon with them. But that doesn't necessarily mean they're a trainer. Someone could just be making their way from one town to another, protected by a Pokemon to fend off wild Pokemon. That doesn't mean they're a trainer and want to battle and train their Pokemon. So how do you know? Is it just some instinct trainers get, allowing them to recognise others like them?_

The girl probably noticed me staring, so she said, "No, I'm not a trainer. But yeah, if trainers lock eyes, it's the unspoken rule that they then battle, so watch out. Any trainer who sees you will probably challenge you." I nodded and thought back to Joey and Mikey challenging me, noticing how she seemed to be accurate.

* * *

 **A/N: I've been writing quite a bit recently, so I'll try to have more up soon. But the problem is, I'm currently trying to write the Violet City gym battle, and let me just say, battles are hard to write. I've been trying to keep them interesting, but there's so many of them that it's hard to make them all interesting, which is why later on some not-important-to-the-story trainer battles may be skipped or just mentioned but not described in detail. Anyway, you can see for yourself how writing trainer battles went in this chapter during which Kris makes her way through Route 30.**

 **So, I hope my value of the Pokedollar doesn't seem off. Instead of trying to find out exactly how much prize money the game would give you/make you pay in each trainer battle, I've created my own little system. As we saw in this chapter, the prize money for a 1v1 is 200** **P** **. It's 200** **P** **for every Pokemon each trainer uses, so it would be 400** **P** **for a 2v2, 600** **P** **for a 3v3, and so on. So, the more Pokemon you use in the battle, the higher risk you're taking because it you lose you'd have to pay more.**

 **One more little battle rule I need to mention: I know in the games you just battle an NPC with whatever you've got in your party, meaning you could go up against a trainer who only has two Pokemon and beat them with your team of four. But realistically, that's not fair, so if trainers don't have the same amount of Pokemon, they still have to use the same amount. So, for example, in the games youngster Mikey has a Pidgey and a Rattata, but Kris only has one Pokemon, so he chose one. And of course, I had him choose Pidgey because we just had a battle with a Rattata so that would have been boring. Of course, gym battles are the same way. Just like in the anime, gyms have their own set of rules, such as the Petalburg gym, which was a 3 on 3, which was why Ash didn't get to have a proper gym battle with Norman the first time he got to Petalburg, because he had left all but Pikachu with Professor Oak when he came to Hoenn. But I'm going to be nice and say if a trainer doesn't have the required amount of Pokemon, most gym leaders will be nice enough to use less, although I do have one or two gym leaders in mind who won't want to change their gym rule, but you'll find out about them when that happens. But generally, gym leaders will be fine with bending their rules a little.**

 **Now that Kris is winning more money and accumulating items, I have gotten really organised with my planning. No joke, I have an Excel spreadsheet that I use to track how much money Kris has as well as how much of each item she has. I've used an autosum to make it automatically add up the numbers, so for example when she beat youngster Joey, I typed '200' and then the total automatically updated itself. I guess it would be easier to understand if you could see it, but anyway, take my word for it, it's helping a lot. This way, I know exactly what's in her bag, so I won't accidentally have Kris use an Oran Berry when she already used her last one, or something like that. I've also been writing down every Pokemon Kris has seen, so that when the time comes for her Pokedex to be evaluated, I'll know exactly how many Pokemon she's seen and caught. Sure, it gets annoying remembering to write them down, but it's also helpful. When I see a Pokemon's name on that list, I am reminded of exactly how she encountered that Pokemon. That was how I remembered that she'd already battled Pidgeys, meaning I was able to mention that when she saw youngster Mikey's Pidgey.**

 **So, in the next chapter, Kris finally gets to Violet City. Will she do more training before the gym? Will she catch any new Pokemon before the gym? Will she be able to do well in a flying type gym with Chikorita? Find out in the next chapter!**


	11. Chapter 11: Confidence is Key

**A/N: Yay, a new reviewer! Hello, shadowkat87. Remember, I am following the events of the games, and Bill does give the player an Eevee. That's all I'll say for now. As always, thanks for reviewing. And I think it's fair that I acknowledge Northstar Pokeshipper, who somehow reviewed mere minutes (if that) after I uploaded the previous chapter, and has been doing so for most chapters. Thank you. It shows me how much you enjoy reading my story. Anyway, I should probably shut up and let you read.**

 **Something else that I wanted to mention. You may have noticed that the chapters usually pick up right where they left off. But from this point onward, I think they'll usually have a bit of a time skip between them. Nothing major will be skipped, of course. You'll see that this chapter skips a battle, but it's just a random trainer on Route 30. And, just in case you guys like knowing which battles Kris wins and loses, I will make sure that if I do skip a battle, I will find a way to show whether or not she won.**

 **Also, I'm sorry. I know I said in the previous chapter's A/N, "** **Will she be able to do well in a flying type gym with Chikorita?" But unfortunately, that question won't be answered quite yet, because due to how I separated the chapters, the gym battle won't be in this chapter. But I promise you, it's finally happening next chapter. So, sorry to mislead you, but it is coming soon, I promise.**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Pokemon.**

* * *

"Chiko!" With a final tackle from Chikorita, Don's Caterpie stayed down, defeated.

"Nice job, Chikorita!" I cheered. I felt like I was really getting used to this. And not just because I've been winning, (although winning does feel pretty good) but because I like having some sort of routine. I used to think trainers always woke up with absolutely no idea what their day would be like, with no plans, just travelling wherever the mood takes them. Even though I still haven't done much travelling yet, I see that trainers do have some sense of routine, which is provided by the battles. _Now, even though I just won three battles in a row, I'm not going to think about that. I'm not going to let it get to my head. Some you win, some you lose. And I'm pretty_ sure I'm going to lose some soon too. Besides, I was starting to learn how to tell which Pokemon the weaker ones are. For example, Caterpie? Not so good. He probably just caught it. The battle _was_ slightly challenging, I will admit, but only because Chikorita was getting tired from consecutive battles, and also because Caterpie ate an Oran Berry during the battle. _At least now I know that items are allowed during battles. And food items like berries are allowed to be held by Pokemon and brought into the battle to be eaten during the battle. I'll have to remember that for later._

"Nice try, Caterpie." Don said, returning it to its Pokeball. "I should have picked my other Caterpie, I think I've trained that one a bit more." Before the battle he'd told me that, like Mikey, he had two Pokemon, so he had to choose one to battle me with. "Well, fair's fair. And I think 200P is the fair prize." He held out his Pokegear. I gave him my account number and he transferred 200P to me.

After returning Chikorita, I checked my balance on my Pokegear, 3600P, before switching to the map screen. I walked ahead and saw the white path below my feet end and checked the screen to see that I had now crossed into Route 31. My view was blocked by a cluster of trees, but I saw a way around by going right through some tall grass. But, as I went through the grass, I was met with a small Pokemon with a large yellow head and a stick-like body with a leaf on each side. I checked my Pokedex to see that it was Bellsprout, the Flower Pokemon. _I suppose it looks a little like a flower. At least, the body does, a bit. The head, not so much._ Chikorita ended up fighting it in a battle of mostly vine whip and razor leaf, which the Bellsprout also could use. But ultimately, Chikorita came out on top, literally, finishing the battle with a tackle, landing on the defeated Bellsprout.

After getting through the patch of tall grass, I looked around. To my left I could see a building that I recognised as a gate into a town, which my Pokegear confirmed to be the way to Violet City. The gate was up on a cliff, which I could see could be gotten to by going down a hill into through a field of tall grass. In the middle of the route was a pond, and just in front of me on the far right of the route was a cave. I walked towards it, feeling a sudden desire to explore everywhere I can, and went into the cave. But as soon as I got into the cave, I was surrounded by nothing but darkness. The opening of the cave was narrow, allowing almost no light into the cave. I looked around, or at least, turned my head in an attempt to see something, anything, but all I saw was darkness, it was pitch-black in there. _Maybe I shouldn't try to go in here, I'll just get lost. Maybe I'll come back another time, but I don't want to be here now._ I used the small amount of light generated by the Pokegear's screen to find the way out of the cave. As I did I noticed the cave's name on the Pokegear – Dark Cave. _They sure named that place right._

I walked alongside the pond, watching a group of small blue Pokemon with swirls on their stomachs, one of them bigger and slightly different-looking from the small ones in the group. _Maybe it's actually a different, but related Pokemon?_ I scanned them with my Pokedex, happy I was able to find out about Pokemon just by being close by, to find out that most of them were Poliwag, while the bigger one was a Poliwhirl. Both classified as the Tadpole Pokemon, Poliwhirl was actually an evolved form of Poliwag. _I wonder how different Chikorita will look when she evolves?_ I looked at Chikorita's Pokedex page, but it didn't say anything about her evolved form, since I hadn't scanned one yet. As I walked along the pond, I noticed a man sitting by the pond, not far from a berry tree. _Wait… is he sleeping? Yep. He's sleeping. Okay, let's just walk past him._ So, I walked past him, and looked at the berry tree. I noticed it growing a pink berry, which I recognised as _not_ a Pecha Berry, from it's not-as-bright pink colour and by the differently-shaped leaves at the top. However, I couldn't quite remember its name. But, I decided it could come in handy, and that I could try to find out its name and what it does in Violet City, so, following the unspoken rule of just pick one, I picked one and put it in my bag.

Walking down the small hill into the field of tall grass, I noticed a boy near the hill that led up and out of the tall grass, up to where the gate to Violet City was. I smiled a little as I realised what he was doing. If anyone tried to walk up that hill to get to the gate, they would be in his line of sight, so by the rules trainers follow, he can challenge that person to a battle, and they're not supposed to refuse a challenge for no good reason. _Well, I guess this means I'm going to battle him_ , I thought excitedly. I took a moment to shake off any lingering pre-battle nerves before walking over to him with some confidence.

"Hey, I see you," he started to say happily.

"And now you're challenging me to a battle." I finished for him. "I've only got one Pokemon though, so if you have more than one, just pick one." I was a lot more confident now than I was before my other battles. I'd done this a few times, and I knew exactly how all of this worked now.

"Gotcha. Well, it could be a bit of a risk, but I'll go with my newest little buddy." He sent out a small orange Pokemon with a similar body shape to a Caterpie. I checked the Pokedex to find out that it is a Weedle, the Hairy Bug Pokemon. While Caterpie was a bug type, Weedle is both a bug type and a poison type, and checking the general information on poison types I saw that poison-type attacks were super effective against grass-type Pokemon. After I sent out Chikorita, I noticed she seemed kind of tired, so, hoping to win this battle, I grabbed an Oran Berry from my bag and threw it to her, and she ate it quickly before continuing to battle. Despite the Oran Berry healing her a bit, the poison stings became a bit too much for her to handle, and Weedle had gotten used to dodging the same attack over and over after I realised that her grass-type attacks weren't doing much damage on the bug-and-poison-type and used mostly tackle. Chikorita was getting exhausted from poison, and it looked like the battle could end for her really soon. But then I realised that even if the grass-type attacks weren't doing much damage, they could still be useful. I had Chikorita wrap Weedle in vines, holding it still so that she could hit it with one strong tackle. Just as I thought, Weedle wasn't very strong, and so it stayed down after that tackle. I felt a wave of excitement rush over me as I ran over to congratulate the winner. I, of course, mean Chikorita, not me, since she did all the hard work.

"Nice job, Chikorita," I congratulated her.

"That was a close one, nice going." He said.

"I never got your name, by the way," I said, fading out of the excitement of having just one another battle.

"Wade,"

"Kris," He handed me his Pokegear to type in my account number. Thinking about how close and how fun that battle had been, I had an idea. "Hey, why don't we register each other's phone numbers? I'll call you sometime, we should have a rematch."

"Cool, I'd love to." We registered each other, and I checked my balance to see that the usual 200P had sent through.

"See you around," I said before walking off to the gate to Violet City. I wandered through and stopped just outside the gate to take in my surroundings.

I saw the Pokemon Centre just ahead of me, with a light purple roof. The town was surrounded by trees, and I noticed a tower visible above them. I wandered past the Pokemon Centre and up a small incline to see the rest of the city. A large building labelled as the 'gym' was situated in the middle of the town. I walked over to the gym. _This is it. I can challenge a gym now. Let's do this._ Luckily, I stopped myself before I went in. _Heal Chikorita, that's what I need to do. I can't believe I almost did something so stupid as to go into a gym without healing Chikorita, she'd be at a disadvantage because she was just battling before._ I ran back to the Pokemon Centre and to the counter.

As I handed over Chikorita's Pokeball, I noticed the long, purple hair the woman who worked at this Pokemon Centre had. I liked it, it looked nice. She seemed pleasant enough. She must have been able to tell that I was new to this because she suggested I look around in the trainers' lounge, a room in the Pokemon Centre where trainers hang out and discuss their training. She did also mention that battling would not be allowed inside the Pokemon Centre, so no one could challenge me there. She mentioned that there are bookshelves with some basic Pokemon information which could help. She mentioned that the books were donated to Pokemon Centres by trainers, and they usually were related to the town. "For example," she had said. "Ecruteak City is a city with a lot of history, especially surrounding Tin Tower and Burned Tower, so people donate books on the history of Ecruteak and the history of the Johto region." That was something I planned to remember. I want to visit every Pokemon Centre in Johto so that I can learn different things from each Pokemon Centre. She also mentioned that there is a school nearby, so if I wanted to learn anything specific, I should check their library.

Taking the purple haired woman's advice, I hung out in the trainers' lounge while I waited for Chikorita. I was happy to see that the bookshelves in this trainers' lounge did have a history book, though it was just the one book with some history on Violet City, and I read a few pages about Sprout Tower, the tower I had noticed earlier. While the ground floor is usually occupied by tourists, the upper levels are dedicated to Pokemon training. The tower is run by monks who train their Pokemon there, but apparently, they also allow trainers to challenge them, and a trainer who defeats all the others is allowed to challenge their leader, Sage Li. I smiled, reading about an opportunity for a challenging battle, and decided that I should probably try challenging them. _But not now. That can wait until after I beat the gym. As soon as Chikorita's ready, I'm going to challenge that gym and win my first badge!_

Putting down the history book, I looked around the room to see that there were a few other trainers around having various discussions. For a moment, I wondered if I should join in, or ask someone if they've challenged the gym yet and what it was like.

"Chiko!" I heard the familiar voice and turned around to see her bounding towards me. She jumped up and I caught her, hugging her close for a moment before putting her down.

"Ready to get our first gym badge, Chikorita?" I asked, bending down and patting her head.

"Chiko!" She was more excited than I was.

"Let's go to the gym!" We both started to run, not too fast as we were still inside the Pokemon Centre, and I remembered to quickly swing past the front counter to grab Chikorita's Pokeball, which she must have ditched to come and find me. Once we got outside, we sprinted towards the gym and went in.

I looked down to see if Chikorita was okay after all that running, and then stood still for a moment to give us a minute to calm down. I looked around and noticed two pillar-like statues with large Pokeballs on top of them at the beginning of a narrow path, which I could see a trainer in. _I'm guessing before I can get to the gym leader, I'll have to battle the people on this path. That will be annoying. I don't want to battle anyone else right now, I just want to try battling a gym leader._ Standing beside the right statue was a man, who noticed me and smiled.

"First time at a gym?" He asked. _Why did he have to assume that? That's just as bad as when the Cherrygrove Pokemon Centre worker assumed I was a 'first time trainer' when I wasn't even a trainer at all yet._ I decided to put up a confident act.

"What makes you say that?" He shrugged.

"I can tell. I see a lot of trainers come through this gym, as well as the other gyms. The other gym guides and I rotate between the gyms, so I go to work at all of the others in Johto. I've seen a lot of trainers, and I think I can tell when it's someone's first time."

"I'm not nervous." I say defensively.

"I didn't say you looked nervous. You don't look nervous. In fact, you're doing a really good job at hiding it." _Hiding it? Who does he think he is, claiming I'm nervous and I'm hiding it?_

"Why do you say that? You don't know me."

"I think I know how this is going to go. I'm guessing you want to battle Falkner, the gym leader, right away, don't you?" I didn't even know the gym leader's name before he said that, but of course I didn't show him that I'd just learned this.

"Yes, I do. I'm looking forward to earning my fir- the Violet City gym badge." I hoped he didn't hear what I'd corrected myself on, because I didn't want him to really know how new I was at this.

"Well, you're in luck. Just in case this is your first time in a gym, I'll explain to you that while there are trainers along the way to the gym leader, and yes, we do recommend you battle them before the leader for some additional training, they are not compulsory. Instead, they won't stop you from walking past them. They will battle you if you challenge them, but you can go straight to the gym leader if you want. If you think that's a good idea. Which I don't, if you want my opinion."

"Well, I didn't ask for your opinion. Like I said, I'm looking forward to earning the Violet City gym badge. I'm going to go challenge the gym leader." And with that I walked away from the gym guide and onto the path in front of me, Chikorita, following me.

Looking back at that moment, I realise I should have been a bit more polite to the gym guide, and maybe asked for some tips, because despite what my temporary confidence might have led him to believe, I really could have used some advice.

* * *

 **A/N: I know Chikorita would be at a disadvantage against the poison-type Weedle, and I actually considered making Kris lose, but then decided against it. First, because Weedle is a fairly weak Pokemon and poison sting, which is actually the only poison-type attack it can even learn, doesn't do much damage anyway. And second because I wanted to have Kris on a winning streak here. Don't worry, she's not going to win all the time, and I have my reasons for having her win these battles. As you can see here, she's still learning about being a trainer, and so she's not thinking things through enough. While this hasn't stopped her from winning yet, as we saw in her conversation with the gym guide, she's getting kind of overconfident here.**

 **And yes, I know in the games all Pokemon Center workers look the same, all having pink hair. But that's because they're sprites and it would be annoying to give them all unique sprites. I described the Cherrygrove nurse as looking like the ones in the games, but then here I decided to have them look different. So, they will each have different coloured hair, and I think I'll try to match them to the name of the town/city if I can, such as: Cherrygrove - cherry blossoms - pink, Violet - violet is a purple colour - purple.**

 **So, will Kris be able to use her new confidence to beat Falkner? Will Chikorita be just as confident as she is? And w** **ill she be able to do well in a flying type gym with Chikorita? This time you** **definitely** **will find out these answers next time!**


	12. Chapter 12: Advice to Listen To

**A/N: Northstar Pokeshipper, thanks for pointing that out about the Pokemon Centre near Union Cave. Don't worry, I have an idea for that one. Shadowkat87, I agree, Chikorita wouldn't do so well against a Pidgey and Pidgeotto. But don't forget, she doesn't have to battle two Pokemon with just one Pokemon. Oh, and did I forget to tell you guys? Falkner doesn't have Pidgey and Pidgeotto. I always thought it was weird that the Johto gym leaders don't actually have many Johto Pokemon. So, I changed their teams! Falkner has a Murkrow and a Noctowl. I think it was a good decision because not only do the Johto gym leaders now have Johto Pokemon, but it gives you guys a little sense of surprise. I also don't like it when gym leaders have multiples of the same Pokemon, such as Clair, who has three Dragonairs. Sure, it works fine in a game, but in a story, it would be boring to read about Kris battling the same Pokemon three times in a row. So, no more multiples of the same Pokemon either. Most will still have the same number of Pokemon as they originally had, but I just looked over my plans, and saw that there are actually two Johto gym leaders whose teams have changed a bit drastically. But you'll find out more about them when it happens. In any case, Kris is still overconfidently challenging a flying-type gym with just Chikorita. Let's see how this goes.**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Pokemon.**

* * *

Falkner. The Violet City gym leader. I was still trying to put up a false confident act, but… I didn't know what to say to him.

"Greetings, trainer. I presume you've heard of me. I am Falkner, the elegant master of flying-type Pokemon." As I remembered learning from my battle against Mikey's Pidgey, flying-types are good against grass types. _This is going to be a real challenge._

"My name's Kris." I didn't know what else to say to him.

"My gym battle is a 2v2. If you have more than two Pokemon, you will have to choose just two to use in the battle." I froze. _Okay, somehow, I had to tell him._

"Um... well, actually I only have one Pokemon." I looked down at Chikorita, who was still standing beside me feet.

"That's okay. You can still challenge me, and I'll just choose one of my Pokemon." He reached for two Pokeballs and after a moment, chose one.

"…Ready, Chiko?" I said quietly, looking down at her. In that moment, I didn't really notice the nickname I'd given her.

"Chiko," she said quietly with a nod. Falkner looked ready. He looked to a nearby man who I hadn't noticed and nodded. I realised he was the referee when he stepped to the side of the battlefield we were standing on. Falkner looked to me and then pointed at the opposite side of the battlefield. Of course, he was already in position on his side of the battlefield. I quickly went to where he pointed.

"Go, Murkrow." Falkner released a black bird Pokemon. I looked to my Pokedex to see that it was a Murkrow, the 'darkness Pokemon.'

"This 1v1 battle between the challenger, Kris, and the gym leader Falkner will now begin." The referee said. Falkner didn't waste any time. He immediately called an attack, but from my position on the other end of the battlefield, I couldn't quite hear him. Murkrow flew forward, and before Chikorita could move out of the way, hit her with its wing, knocking her back.

"Chi-ko!" _That's some major damage already. Think, Kris!_ I realised I was at a disadvantage, not knowing the attacks I was up against. I quickly got my Pokedex to a screen that showed attacks a Murkrow would be able to use, then tried to match what I'd just seen with an attack and decided 'wing attack' seemed like it could have been it. Realising it was stupid of me to look away from the battlefield, I looked back at Chikorita to see her just barely manage to avoid another wing attack. I thought about Chikorita's attacks for a moment. _A head-on attack like tackle wouldn't work well on a flying opponent, that much I've learned from battling Pidgeys. So maybe something to knock it out of the sky?_

"Peck," I heard Falkner say while I was thinking.

"Razor leaf!" Murkrow flew towards Chikorita, and before she had a chance to use razor leaf, it pecked her, and she was knocked back off her feet after the hit from Murkrow's sharp beak. _These flying-type attacks are going to be the death of me. Of Chikorita, I mean. Well, not literally death, but whatever. Basically, they'll make the battle really hard._ After a moment of stumbling to get back into focus, she tried to use razor leaf, and finally landed a hit on Murkrow, who didn't seem to be expecting to get hit. It was hit by a few leaves, but then flew lower to avoid being hit any more. I realised, in order to land a good hit, we'd need to knock it out of the sky to be able to land a direct attack. _We need to knock it out of the sky, so…_ "Vine whip!"

"Murkrow, use haze." Falkner said, sounding confident. Hearing his confidence seemed to drain what little of my confidence was still left. Chikorita extended her vines, but then Murkrow opened its mouth and let out a haze of some sort of dark vapour, and the make things worse, it flapped its wings to push the smoke towards Chikorita. She tried to grab, or at least hit, Murkrow with her vines, but I couldn't see where Murkrow had got to, and clearly, Chikorita couldn't see it either. I remembered how my battle with Silver went. This was starting to go the same way. After Cyndaquil had used smokescreen… it was basically over.

"Chikorita, watch out." I didn't know what else to say. _What else can she do?_ I looked on hopelessly as the dark-coloured bird flew out of the camouflaging haze and hit her with a wing attack.

"Chiko!" She fell to the ground. _No… can she get up?_ She did try to get up, and then, even though she wasn't yet standing completely up, she tried a razor leaf, which did hit Murkrow, but barely affected the flying type, which resists grass-type attacks. _It must at least be getting a bit tired by now._

"Peck," I heard Falkner say, and he was starting to become visible through the thinning haze. Chikorita was too hurt to try and run away. Murkrow flew forward and hit Chikorita with a peck that pushed her back and sent her collapsing on the floor of the battlefield. I looked to her, then to the referee, who was staring at Chikorita.

"The challenger's Chikorita is unable to battle. The victory goes to the gym leader, Falkner." Part of me wanted to fight. To deny it. It wasn't that I wanted him to allow the battle to continue. It was that I didn't want it to go like this. A small part of me was denying it, but as I walked over to Chikorita, I started to accept that Chikorita had, indeed, lost. I knelt down beside her. I didn't know what to say. So, I didn't say anything and returned her to her Pokeball. I looked up to see Falkner return his Murkrow and walk towards me.

"Maybe you should do some more training, or catch another Pokemon." He said. I nodded, not really taking in what he was saying though. Then, it appeared as if he was waiting for something. "…Your Pokegear? So I can give you the account number? You'll need to pay 400P." _Oh, right. Just like any other trainer battle, in a gym battle, the loser pays. And since this was a 1v1, I pay… wait, did he say 400?_

"Sorry, did you say 400?" I asked.

"Yes, it's 400. In a gym battle, the stakes are higher, so the prize money is doubled. Didn't the guide tell you? Usually trainers ask the guide about that before their first gym battle."

"No. No, he didn't." _I didn't let him. I was too busy rushing into this battle._ I set up a transfer of 400P out of my account and let him type in the gym's account number.

"I hope to see you again for a rematch after you've had some more training."

"Thanks, bye." I walked back to the door, trying to avoid eye contact with the two trainers I had to pass on the way back through the path. Not because they'd challenge me, because they wouldn't, and Chikorita couldn't battle again anyway. Just because I didn't want to see any judgement on their faces as I walked away from my loss.

At least, the Violet City Pokemon Centre worker was nicer after this loss than the Cherrygrove one had been after seeing Chikorita after my loss to Silver. She seemed empathetic as she took Chikorita to heal her. While waiting, I got out my container of leftovers from last night's dinner to eat for lunch. While eating, I thought about how the battle had gone wrong. Then I started to think about Falkner's advice. "Maybe you should do some more training or catch another Pokemon." He had said. _I haven't even thought much about catching another Pokemon yet. I've just been enjoying training Chikorita and haven't caught any others. I never saw much of a reason. Wait… is he saying Chikorita's weak? That she's not good enough. No, surely, he's not. He's the gym leader, his advice is probably worth listening to. Maybe I actually should catch a different Pokemon. Not to replace Chikorita, but to compliment her. Different Pokemon have different strengths and weaknesses, right? So, I should catch something that has different strengths and weaknesses to Chikorita. While she may not be so good at fighting flying types, that's fine, because a different Pokemon might be able to beat this gym, and Chikorita could do well in a different gym._

After I finished eating, I got Chikorita back before going for a short walk around Violet City. I never really explored the city before, since I just rushed straight to the gym. But now I figured I should give Chikorita some time to rest, and it's fine for me to be alone as long as I stay in the city and not go in any routes.

I found the mart next to the gym, and decided I needed to stock up on food for Chikorita. But then when I found the Pokemon food aisle, I saw so many different kinds, and there seemed to be different food for different types of Pokemon. I saw a sales assistant nearby and asked, "Which food would you recommend? I have a grass-type."

"Well, it depends…" He trailed off. The young adult working in the store wandered the aisle in search of something, before gesturing to two different packets of Pokemon food, both labelled as being for grass-types. I recognised the larger as the one Professor Elm had supplied to me. "Is it a smaller Pokemon, or an unevolved one?" he asked.

"Yes, she hasn't evolved."

"I recommend you use these," he picked up the smaller packet.

"Really? Professor Elm had been feeding her the bigger one."

"Probably because he was looking after multiple different Pokemon. While both packets are aimed at grass-types, the smaller pack contains more nutrients that only grass-types would need, while the larger is more general, meaning since he looks after other Pokemon, he can let them share. Plus, the smaller one is to be given as three meals a day, but the bigger one is to be given as just two meals a day, which is why it's bigger. Since it's more filling, Professor Elm probably used this one, so he would be feeding the Pokemon less often since he's probably busy."

I nodded. "That makes sense." I looked at the prices on the packets. The smaller was 200P, meaning I'd be spending 600P per day. The larger was, like Professor Elm had said when I bought some off of him, 500P, meaning I'd be spending 1000P per day. With the smaller also being more cost-effective, that settled that decision. I decided to buy one day's worth of food (3 packets) for Chikorita, plus I had to grab a packet for her dinner tonight. I looked around and saw some potions, which I decided could come in handy when I'm in a route, battling trainers, and not close to a Pokemon Centre, so I grabbed 2 potions. Altogether, it came to 1400P. _I'd better win that gym battle when I re-challenge the gym. The good thing about the prize money being doubled is that it works both ways. If I win that gym battle, I'll get double prize money back. I'm going to need to be consistently winning trainer battles every day in order to have enough to feed my Pokemon. Who knew budgeting is such a major part of being a trainer? Luckily, I'm pretty good at spending money sensibly._

After I finished my shopping, I went back to the Pokemon Centre to pick up Chikorita. Since she was going to now be eating the smaller packets, so that wouldn't be too hungry for a smaller portion at dinner, I gave her the leftovers she didn't eat at breakfast to eat as a snack now. After she ate, we took a walk around Violet City together, but didn't really see much of interest. I once again thought about Falkner's advice. "Maybe you should do some more training or catch another Pokemon." _Maybe he's right. So, I should do some more training?_ I remembered what I'd read about the Sprout Tower in a book at the Pokemon Centre. Remembering how the sages there allow trainers to challenge them. _Well, looks like Sprout Tower is where I'm going next._

* * *

 **A/N: I can't believe Murkrow can't actually learn wing attack by level up! At least, not in generation 2. Still I usually go by the generation 2 learnsets to keep things accurate to Crystal, and when I looked it up I was surprised that wing attack wasn't on Murkrow's list of moves to learn by level up, at least on the generation 2 list. But it was on the list of moves for breeding, as well as level up in other generations, so that's good enough for me. Still, thought it was funny to see that in gen 2 a Murkrow couldn't learn wing attack other than through breeding.**

 **I hope my valuing of the Pokedollar doesn't seem off. It's really hard to find a nice balance where things don't seem too cheap but are affordable. Very soon, Kris is going to be feeding two Pokemon, and I've got a third planned, too. I won't say much, but I'll say this much: she'll have at least three by the time she reaches Goldenrod City. Anyway, she needs to be able to feed her whole team, a problem we don't actually have when playing the games.**

 **Shout out to Northstar Pokeshipper, who predicted that Kris would "go into the Violet gym with just Chikorita, lose terribly to Falkner, then go to Sprout Tower to train and potentially catch a new Pokemon" back in a review of chapter 9. I was surprised to see that review, since I'd already had this part of the story planned out since before she even met Mr. Pokemon. I can't remember exactly at what point I started planning things out, but you get the idea. Nice job, Northstar Pokeshipper. Although, does this mean my ideas are too predictable? That's something for me to think about. I'll try to make things more exciting and unpredictable, things you won't see coming.**

 **I was originally planning to save Sprout Tower for after she beats the gym. But then I had to change things around when I realised that the Pokemon I want her to catch only appears at night, so I decided to have her do the Sprout Tower now with just Chikorita, and then it'll be later, and she can catch what I've been planning for her to catch for so long. Then she'll challenge Falkner to a rematch with her team of two. Fun fact: while in Heartgold and Soulsilver, you aren't able to challenge the Violet City gym before going to Sprout Tower, in Gold/Silver/Crystal, you are not required to go to Sprout Tower. You could play through the game without every stepping foot in Sprout Tower if you wanted! So, that something interesting I discovered when looking up Sprout Tower to remind myself of Sage Li's name.**

 **So, how will Kris go in the Sprout Tower? What Pokemon will join Chikorita in Kris's team? How will she go challenging Falkner? Will I ever get bored of writing these teaser questions? Find out in future chapters! Notice how I said, 'in future chapters' and not 'next time'? That's because I don't yet know if the rematch with Falkner will be in the next chapter. Probably not. But it'll happen soon. Anyway, see you next time!**


	13. Chapter 13: So Many Bellsprouts

**A/N: Well, it's a good thing I said, 'in future chapters' and not 'in the next chapter,' because guess what? She doesn't catch the Pokemon in this chapter. Sorry. I really did think she would, but then, well, plans changed. I was going to have her go through Sprout Tower and then catch her new Pokemon, but then writing Sprout Tower actually got longer than I expected, so I thought I should split the chapter into two. But I promise this time, she will catch the Pokemon in either chapter 14 or 15. I say 'either' because I'm still deciding whether the part where she catches a Pokemon will be part of chapter 14 or if I will split the chapter so it would happen in 15. I guess that will depend on how long the events of chapter 14 end up being.**

 **As always, thanks for the reviews. Shadowkat87, those are some interesting guesses, but keep in mind, they're not the only Pokemon nearby. There are plenty of areas nearby that Kris could go to catch a Pokemon. And I will confirm, it is NOT a Gastly. I personally don't like Gastly, but it's also because Silver has one. In the second rival battle in Azalea Town, Silver (or whatever you call your rival in the game) has a Gastly, Zubat, and a second-evolution starter. So, I like to think he caught that Gastly in the Sprout Tower. So, no, don't want Kris to have any of the same Pokemon as him. And Northstar Pokeshipper, do you think you'd be willing to share your idea of what Pokemon it will be? Entirely up to you of course, but maybe after it's revealed, you could tell me whether it's what you thought it was or not?**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Pokemon.**

* * *

I felt slightly nervous as I walked into the tower. I remembered reading about it and smiling at the opportunity for a challenge. But now, after losing to Falkner, I don't know if I really want a challenge. _Still_ , I told myself, _it can't be all that bad. It's a tourist attraction. In fact, the book said that some people even challenge the sages for fun, even if they're not trainers, so it can't be that hard, can it?_

As I looked around, the first thing I noticed was the large pillar, going through a gap in the ceiling and up the tower. It seemed to be swaying back and forth but didn't appear broken. A few tourists were gathered around, some taking photos as they marvelled at the tourist attraction.

Trying to avoid them, I headed for the stairs. I noticed the fence going around the area I was in, indicating that maybe the room was bigger than this area. I nervously look to the man next to the stairs, wondering if I'm supposed to tell him before I go up to challenge people. The man appeared to be one of the monks who run the tower, judging by his clothes.

"I welcome you to the Sprout Tower." He says, when he notices me.

"Thank you. I plan to challenge the sages of the Spout Tower." I told him.

"Good luck," he says, bowing slightly. _Okay, I wasn't expecting him to do that. Is that some sort of tradition, these guys always bow to new challengers?_ After a moment of deliberation, I bowed back, before going up the stairs.

The path through which I would battle the sages was very straightforward and linear. The fences created a simple path on which I couldn't easily get lost, which is good. As I walked along the path, I was attacked by the small purple creature that I recognised as a Rattata. I knew that the Sprout Tower was a place of Pokemon training, but it still surprised me a little to be attacked by a seemingly wind Pokemon here. _I guess they just let some wild Pokemon roam free in here._ After looking around to make sure it had no trainer, I sent out Chikorita and battled it with the weaker, untrained Pokemon not being too much of a challenge. After beating the Rattata, I continued walking, and when I noticed one of the sages, purposefully made eye contact.

"I am Sage Nico." He bowed. "However hard we battle; the tower will stand strong." He pulled out a Pokeball.

"I am Kris," I bowed back. "And, I only have one Pokemon." I added, seeing three Pokeballs attached to his robes.

"Very well," he chose one, and sent out a Bellsprout. I remembered Bellsprout, I'd battled one on Route 31.

"Go, Chikorita!" Grass-type attacks didn't work so well against the grass-and-poison-type, but I didn't have too much trouble beating it with mostly tackles. Though, since this was supposed to be a challenge for trainers, I wondered if they put their sages in order, getting tougher as they go along. At least, the one that is supposed to be battled last was their leader, Sage Li, so it makes sense that he'd be the toughest. Well, after the battle, he did say, "I fought hard but I'm too weak." I wanted to tell him that he shouldn't think of himself as 'too weak,' but I didn't say anything, and after he sent me the 200P for winning a 1v1, I continued through the Sprout Tower.

Moving along the narrow path, I found a canister that looked similar to that of a potion but was yellow instead of purple. The label told me it was a paralyse heal, which cures a Pokemon of being paralysed. Looking up the term in my Pokedex's glossary, I learned that paralysis was a status effect, like poison, which can be inflicted through certain attacks, such as stun spore. _But why was this just left here? Did someone leave it here by accident? Or was it left her on purpose for a trainer who challenges the sages?_ I decided I'd ask the next sage I saw about it and picked it up for now. I could hear voices talking. Looking at the fence, I was able to find a small gap in the fence to look through and could see that I was back on the ground floor, on the outside of the fence that had surrounded the area where the tourists were. Ignoring the sound of the tourists, I continued along the narrow path, where I was met with another sage.

"Hey, I found this." I told him, showing him the paralyse heal.

"You may have that, trainer. It is our gift to you, our challenger." He said.

"Thank you."

"I am Sage Chow," he bowed.

"I am Kris," I bowed back. _This is getting fun. I'm really getting into the spirit of the Sprout Tower challenge now. I don't know why I was nervous going in, this is gonna be fun._ "I challenge you. But I only have one Pokemon." He nodded and chose one Pokemon. It was another Bellsprout. _Are they all going to have Bellsprouts? Well, it does seem to be their… mascot, of sorts. Their tower seems to be named after Bellsprouts._ It was a slightly tougher battle, both because Chow seemed to be a bit more skilled than Nico and because Chikorita was already a bit tired from the previous battle, but she still managed to defeat the Bellsprout. But it was close, and she was tired from two battles in a row. So, I took a break and went to the Pokemon Centre to give her a rest.

While I waited for Chikorita to rest up and heal, I looked through my Pokedex at Chikorita's information. _I should really have Chikorita try some new moves that I haven't had her try yet. What's this synthesis? Appears to be a method of healing herself. The name makes sense, like photosynthesis, the way plants feed, and grass-types are related to plants. She's even got a leaf on her head! I wouldn't be surprised if she needs to get plenty of sunlight to survive._ The Pokedex did, in fact say, that Chikorita 'loves to bask in the sunlight' and 'uses the leaf on its head to seek out warm places.' _I should remember that move. It could come in handy, so I won't have to go back to the Pokemon Centre too much._ I also noticed other attacks, like body slam. The name made it seem similar to tackle, but the information listed made it seem more powerful. _But now that Chikorita's been trained up quite a bit since I got her, maybe she could try a body slam._ I also saw solar beam, which seemed rather powerful, so I opted not to try it for now. _Besides_ , I reasoned, _even if I wanted to, the move requires her to take in sunlight, which I can't really do indoors, so I can't try it in the Sprout Tower._

When Chikorita was done resting, we went back to the Sprout Tower. Going past Sage Nico and then Sage Chow, who bowed as I passed. _I guess they really respect someone who beats them._ Behind Sage Chow were a set of stairs, which led me to the second floor, the floor where Nico had been, except I was on a different side of a fence. As I walked around a corner, I saw a sage who, before noticing me, seemed captivated by the swaying pillar in the middle of the room, which had continued on from the ground floor and went on to the next floor.

"Sway like leaves in the wind…" He said. _If he likes leaves, well, he's about to see one. The one on Chikorita's head._

"I am Kris," I said, bowing to him. He seemed to appreciate being bowed to first. "I challenge you to a 1v1 battle."

"I am Sage Edmond." He bowed back. "I accept your challenge, Trainer Kris." He sent out – you guessed it – another Bellsprout. The battle wasn't too much of a challenge. Chikorita was still clearly stronger than his Bellsprout. When it looked like Bellsprout was almost down, I decided to try a body slam.

"Chikorita, try body slam!" She recognised the attack name, but I could tell on her face she was slightly surprised at this command she wasn't used to hearing. But still, she was faster than Bellsprout, and hit it with a body slam that finished the battle. After he bowed and paid the prize money, I continued on past him. Just behind him were stairs, next to one of the statues of Bellsprout that decorated the tower.

On the next floor, I saw that three sages were stood around the room. After the usual bow and introduction, I battled Sage Jin, and then Sage Neal, who both, of course, used a Bellsprout. Finally, after a moment of deliberation, despite Chikorita being tired from multiple battles in a row, I went on to challenge Sage Troy.

As soon as Troy's Bellsprout hit Chikorita with a razor leaf, I realised I should have healed Chikorita. Normally, she's fast enough to avoid a Bellsprout's razor leaf, or create a shield of vines to block it. But she was too tired to dodge. Luckily, the Bellsprout's grass-type attack did hurt Chikorita too much anyway, but she was getting tired. That was when I remembered that items were allowed to be used during battle. I grabbed an Oran Berry from my bag.

"Chiko, here!" I tossed the berry to her and she quickly ate it. Looking like she felt better, she quickly dodged Bellsprout's next attack, and expertly managed to win the battle. _She never ceases to amaze me and make me proud._ Behind Troy, I could see the where one more sage, who I assumed was their leader, Sage Li, stood at the back of the room. As usual, Troy paid the prize money bowed to me, and I bowed back.

Despite her having eaten the berry, she wasn't fully healed, and I didn't want to take any chances with Sage Li, so I went back to the Pokemon Centre so Chikorita would be truly ready for this battle. As I gave her a few minutes to rest, I took another walk around the Violet City. I noticed a large man walking towards a big building just up the hill from the Pokemon Centre. I guess he could tell I'm a trainer, because he turned to me and said, "Hello! You are trainer? Battle gym leader. Win you did?" _Why is he talking like that?_ Was my first thought.

Now, I could have lied to him. I could have said I hadn't actually battled the gym leader yet. _But what if he'd seen me going into the gym earlier?_ I could have said I'd won. _But what if he asks to see the gym badge I would have won?_ So, I told the truth. "No, I lost."

"Is that so? Then study shall you! Follow me!" He leads me to the building, which I now saw was labelled as being the Pokemon Academy. "Earl I am. Pokemon Academy in this building. Here, teacher I am. Good it is you study here!" He leads me in and takes me to a library. "Library this is. Many books to be found on Pokemon. Topics unknown, learn you shall. Anything you don't know, there is?" Now I understood. _This teacher, Earl, likes to find trainers around Violet City and help them out._ _That's nice of him, I guess._

"I'm not sure. I'll take a look around." He left me, and I wandered around the library for a few minutes, while absentmindedly fumbling through my bag to remind myself of what I have with me. My hand closes around a berry, and I remember that I never did find out the name of that pink berry I picked on Route 31. I looked at the bookshelves and found a book on berries. I flipped through it until I found a picture that matched it. It was a Persim Berry, which cures a Pokemon's confusion. _I'll keep that in mind._

After I put the book back, I went back to the Pokemon Centre to pick up Chikorita. As she gave Chikorita back to me, the purple haired woman who worked there asked, "So, how is your training going?"

"Not bad, I suppose. I've almost finished my challenge in the Sprout Tower. Now that Chikorita's all healed, I'm gonna go challenge their leader, Sage Li."

"Well, good luck. I'll be here to heal Chikorita again. You know, after you guys win that battle." She smiled. _She barely knows me, and yet she has confidence in me. That's so nice._

"I'll try my best." As I made my way back to the Sprout Tower, I saw that the sun was starting to set. The beautiful pink and orange sunset brought about a feeling of hope. The nice feeling of the cool air around me suddenly disappeared when I once again entered the tower. I made my way back up to the third floor to find Sage Li, still at the end of the room. Only, he wasn't alone now. _I've seen that red hair before!_


	14. Chapter 14: The First Sunset

**A/N: Sorry for the wait. I was really busy, and then I had a bit of writer's block for a while, trying to write the battle with Sage Li and also the stuff that happens after that. I also had trouble trying to figure out a good place to end this chapter, so have a nice, long chapter! Though I'm pretty sure the next one will be kind of short.**

 **Also, I was rereading an earlier chapter to check something, and noticed a typo. And I hate typos. Of course, I corrected it. But please, if you guys notice any typos I missed, please, please let me know so I can correct it because I hate leaving typos in my writing.**

 **Oh, and about the chapter name. I usually have a lot of trouble trying to think of creative chapter names. I know the sunset was mentioned in the previous chapter, not this one, but don't always take the name literally, okay? A sunset symbolises the end of the day, and this chapter is just that, the end of the first day. Therefore, the first sunset.**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Pokemon.**

* * *

It was Silver. Here, in the Sprout Tower. Challenging Sage Li. Before me. _Well, it's not like it's a competition. Sure, we got our first Pokemon at almost the same time, but I didn't really start my journey until today. He probably got to Violet City yesterday. He was probably on his way there when he passed through Cherrygrove City and battled me._ He was in the middle of a battle with Sage Li, who had a Bellsprout in front of him. Silver was using some sort of round purple Pokemon surrounded by some sort of gas, which upon checking my Pokedex I found out was called Gastly, the gas Pokemon.

"Gastly, lick," I heard, but just barely. Silver's voice wasn't very loud, and I wasn't too close to them, standing just beside the pillar in the middle of the tower. Gastly licked the Bellsprout, and the Bellsprout fainted. _Okay, I guess they weren't in the middle of the battle, they were at the end of it._ They returned their Pokemon, and Sage Li bowed. Silver didn't bow back, I noticed. Instead, he seemed to just stare at him expectantly, as far as I could tell from where I stood beside the pillar, looking at him from the back. _Looks like he's waiting something. Maybe there's a prize for winning? But why didn't he bow? Li did bow first, and it's only polite to bow back._ After they returned their Pokemon, Li went to a nearby bag and pulled out something small, which I couldn't quite see.

"You are indeed skilled as a trainer." Sage Li told Silver. "As promised, here is your HM." Silver took the small object from him. "But let me say this: you should treat your Pokemon better." _I hope he's not being mean to that cute little Cyndaquil I battled, or to that Gastly._ His words after our battle echoed in my mind. _"You're weak. Just look at you, worried about that useless, weak Pokemon. Pokemon are used to battle with, but you care about that one too much, and that will be your downfall." That's what he'd said. But maybe he was wrong. I remember watching him return his Cyndaquil without a word to it. No "that was a great battle," or "you did so well" or "I'm proud of you." Nothing like that to show that he cares about Cyndaquil. He just wants strong Pokemon, so he can use them for their strength._ "The way you battle is far too harsh." Sage Li said, continuing to remind me of how Silver acted when I battled him. "Pokemon are not tools of war…" Silver seemed to not want to listen to him anymore, because without speaking to him, he turned around and walked away from Sage Li, in my direction, and he noticed me.

"Humph!" He seemed annoyed. Maybe at what Sage Li had just been telling him, maybe at my presence here ( _what has he got against me?_ ), or maybe a bit of both. "He claims to be the elder but he's weak. It stands to reason. I'd never lose to fools who babble about being nice to Pokemon. I only care about strong Pokemon that can win. I really couldn't care less about weak Pokemon."

"But don't all Pokemon start off weak?" I reasoned. "I mean, your Cyndaquil was once just a baby, and so was my Chikorita. You wouldn't have called Cyndaquil strong if you'd met it back then, because it hadn't started being trained yet. It's like that saying, all people who made it big in life started off as nothing more than what we are now: kids. If they can do it, why not us? All Pokemon started out the same way, too. They all have the potential to be strong." In my peripheral vision I noticed Sage Li looking in our direction, maybe listening to our conversation.

"You must be some sort of joke, with your cliché, optimistic, 'everyone has potential' attitude. If you're here, I assume you're taking on the gym challenge now. That was a mistake. You're not going to make it very far with that optimism of yours. You'll learn sooner or later that some Pokemon are strong and some are just weak. If you refuse to see the truth and insist on using weak Pokemon, you won't do well, and you'll just give up." _No. He must be wrong. That can't be how raising Pokemon actually works. He's just trying to get me to give up. What is his problem with me, anyway? What did I do to him? Why does he enjoy trying to put me down so much? But I refuse to listen to him. He's wrong. Of course, I won't give up._

"I won't give up. On myself, or on Chikorita, or any other Pokemon that might join my team. Unlike you, I'm willing to see the potential in anyone, because everyone deserves a fair chance to prove their worth."

"Weak Pokemon don't deserve to be trained." He sounded like he was going to say more, but in my determination to get through to him, I interrupted.

"Of course, they do. They can't stop being weak if they can't train. You need to give them a chance." He looked at me as if he was thinking of something to say back. I felt like I needed to add something. "How about you just give all Pokemon a chance? You never know. A Pokemon that you thought was weak might surprise you."

"Humph. You wish. Weak Pokemon don't just become strong. They're just useless. And they're just as annoying as those who insist on trying to train them, like you. Just stay out of my way. I don't have time for a wimp like you." I immediately learned that he'd meant to stay out of his way in more ways than one, as he shoved me towards the wall opposite the pillar, pushing me out of his way. _The path wasn't that narrow, though. He could have gone around me. But I guess he just likes having more space around him? Or maybe that was a warning. Maybe he's the type to settle things with violence, and he was trying to tell me that if I try to talk to him again, things will get physical. I really should stay away from him. But I really want to help him see reason. Just like how I believe that all Pokemon have the potential to be strong, I believe all people have the potential to be good people who do the right thing. I have faith in my Pokemon, and somehow, I have faith in Silver that he will one day learn to have faith in his own Pokemon. Okay, enough with my sappy, optimistic thoughts. Time to challenge Sage Li. He's probably still staring at me._ I looked over at Sage Li to see that he was, indeed, still looking in my direction. I walked over to him, pulling out Chikorita's Pokeball. I was ready for this.

"So good of you to come here!" He said. "Sprout Tower is a place of training. People and their Pokemon test their bonds to build a bright future together. I am the final test."

"Sage Li," I bowed. "I am Kris. I have defeated the rest of the sages of the Sprout Tower, and now I challenge you to a 1v1." He smiled and bowed back.

"Just a moment. My Pokemon need to rest after our previous battle. I wasn't expecting two challenges so close together. I'll have to give them potions."

"Would you like me to run them over to the Pokemon Centre? It's not that far away, and it'll save you using up your potions. Besides, their machines will probably be more effective than potions."

"Thank you, trainer Kris." He handed me his three Pokeballs. "At least allow me to repay you by giving you one of the potions I was going to use." He pulled out a potion canister, except the colour was different. This one was a combination of a red-pink colour at the bottom and a yellow-orange colour at the top. "This one is a super potion. It should heal your Pokemon a bit more than the regular kind would."

"Thank you." I said, putting the super potion in my bag, as well as Chikorita's Pokeball, but left Li's Pokeballs in my hands, so I wouldn't mix them up with the empty Pokeballs in my bag. I quickly took them to the Pokemon Centre, waited for them to be ready, and then ran back to the tower, excited to finally be battling Sage Li. He took his Pokeballs back and chose one. I sent out Chikorita and he sent out not a Bellsprout, but a small brown Pokemon with two stubby wings and a short, fan-shaped tail. It had large red eyes with beady pupils, but it didn't look all too scary or anything. Upon checking my Pokedex, I saw that it was a Hoothoot, the Owl Pokemon. The first thing I noticed was that, despite having wings, it wasn't up in the air like the Pidgeys I've battled before, or like Falkner's Murkrow was. _Maybe it can't fly? Or it just prefers to stand on the ground? Whatever the reason, what matters is, it's easier to hit. I should try and get the first attack. Start strong, that's what I should do._ "Body slam!" Chikorita ran and tried to body slam the Hoothoot, but it was fast enough to jump up. Despite not hitting it directly, Chikorita managed to grab its legs to pull it back down.

"Peck," I heard Sage Li say. Hoothoot pecked Chikorita on her head, just near the base of the large leaf, which I'm guessing might be a bit of a sensitive spot.

"Chi-ko-o!" She yelled, as she was hit with the flying-type attack. She'd let go of Hoothoot's feet and it now hovered, albeit a bit low. _Maybe it can fly a little, or hover a bit, but its small wings aren't strong enough to completely fly like a Pidgey or a Murkrow._ That was when I had an idea. Sure, Chikorita's ranged attacks like razor leaf or vine whip were grass-type attacks, which wouldn't do that much damage, but they could still be useful enough for my idea to work.

"Alright Chiko, try and aim your razor leaf for one of its wings. Just focus on the wing, okay?"

"Chiko!" She nodded, either understanding my plan or trusting me enough to do whatever I say without question. Either way, she began shooting leaves, most of them hitting Hoothoot's left wing.

"Okay, now get ready to tackle it once it's standing on the floor again." I told Chikorita. She continued her razor leaf, but nodded, hearing me. Hoothoot tried to avoid the leaves, but its left wing was getting hit too much, and so after a flapping frenzy of trying to stay airborne, it stopped moving its left wing and focused on landing safely on the floor. As soon as its feet touched the floor, Chikorita leaped forward and tackled it. "Nice job, Chiko." But I lost concentration and when I heard Sage Li's command of "take down," I wasn't ready to give a command. And it seemed like Chikorita wasn't ready for it either, because she had lost focus and was hit by Hoothoot's attack before she could react and dodge. _But she's okay, she still in this. Though she does look like she's getting kinda tired. Oh, of course, that's what I should try._ "Chiko, try synthesis." But then I saw Hoothoot coming close again, so I had a better idea. "Make a shield of vines to protect yourself while you use synthesis." Chikorita extended her vines and wrapped them around herself, leaving no clear way for Hoothoot to attack her. Chikorita shone with a white light which I could see through small gaps in her vine shield. "Chiko, get ready to use those vines to attack." After a moment, the light faded away, she unwrapped her vines and hit the startled Hoothoot. Then she took the initiative to wrap a vine around Hoothoot's legs, keeping it from getting away. "Now body slam!" She leaped forward and hit it with a body slam, and then unwrapped the vine around its legs, because it looked like it was down for the count. "Good job, Chiko."

"Thank you, Hoothoot." Sage Li said. He returned Hoothoot to its Pokeball and bowed to me. He grabbed his Pokegear, which was nearby, and allowed me to type in my account number so he could transfer 200P for my win. "You should have no trouble exploring caves, so I award you this TM." He handed me some sort of disc shaped device. _What is this? And what does it have to do with exploring caves?_ Seeing my confusion, he explained. "This is a technical machine, or TM as it is usually called. It is used to allow Pokemon to used moves they wouldn't be able to learn on their own. This TM contains flash. Do you know what that move does?" I did appreciate that he asked, in case I already knew. But I didn't know, so I decided to have a guess instead. I thought of the saying, 'in a flash,' and had an idea.

"Does it… make a Pokemon really fast?"

"No. The Pokemon generates a bight flash of light that would light up a dark place, such as the cave over on Route 31." _Oh. That makes a bit more sense._ "TMs can only be used once though, so if you wanted to use it on more than Pokemon, you'd have to buy another one."

"Oh, okay. Well, thank you. That was a great battle, and I'll admit, quite a challenge." I looked down to where Chikorita was now curled up beside my ankles. Not sleeping, but just sitting there, taking it easy. "It wasn't easy, but we got through it. Right, Chiko?"

"Chiko," She said quietly.

"Don't worry, we'll go rest at the Pokemon Centre next. You can go back in your ball now." I returned her to her Pokeball, once again remembering how Silver had returned his Pokemon without a word to them. "I think I'll do a bit more training tomorrow, so I can be ready to challenge the gym – again. I lost earlier." I don't know why I said that. Earlier I had been so adamant about not telling the gym guide it was my first time challenging a gym, so now you'd think I wouldn't want to tell people I lost either. But I guess I feel like I can be honest with Li. Even after he lost to me, he respects me. He doesn't seem angry or jealous. Unlike me, when I lost to Falkner. I'd gone into that gym with so much confidence, too much confidence. So then when I lost, I almost couldn't believe it. I will admit it, I was jealous that Falkner seemed so much better at this than I was. But Sage Li, he was handling this the right way, so I feel like I should respect him and be honest with him.

"Good luck," he said. "I have faith that you can win with perseverance and confidence in yourself." I had to stop myself from laughing. _If only he knew_ , I was thinking. _Confidence isn't the key to winning. Confidence was what ruined that battle._ As if he could see me doubting whether confidence would help me, he continued. "While overconfidence is a problem for some, I believe that in my battle with you, you weren't overconfident. You seem to have found the right balance of confidence." _Have I really? Maybe he's right. Maybe I was overconfident in my battle with Falkner, but I don't think I was in my battle with Li. That's because I didn't overthink it or put on a confident act to seem more experienced than I really was. I just let it happen, and then I won. This is how I need to battle in my rematch tomorrow. No more acting, just go for it and let it happen._

"Thank you, Sage Li. You have no idea how much your words have actually helped me." I told him. I bowed. He bowed back. And with that, I headed to the stairs to leave Sprout Tower.

It had gotten dark while I was in the Sprout Tower. I went back to the Pokemon Centre and gave Chikorita to the purple-haired woman to heal. While I waited, I went to find the dining area, so I could figure out what to do for dinner. It wasn't until I left the Sprout Tower that I'd realised I actually was hungry. I hadn't eaten much today. I'd gotten distracted by the gym, and then Sprout Tower. _Is that going to happen every day?_ I wondered. _I need to make sure I buy some snacks, to make sure I always have something to eat if I get hungry._ I looked around the dining area to see booths lining the walls, as well as a few smaller tables around the room. At one end of the room was the window to a small café. Near the window was a sign that explained that they served something different every day. Today there were pizzas. I looked at the pizzas to find that they, of course, had my favourite kind: plain cheese. Sure, some people find it weird that I don't like all those other toppings, but I just prefer a simple cheese pizza. _I know I did tell mum I wouldn't be buying my meals every day, but it's fine to get a pizza for dinner tonight, right?_ I checked my most recent transfers on the banking app on the Pokegear and added together the transfers from the Sprout Tower. After defeating all of the sages of Sprout Tower, I'd made 1400P, which made up for the shopping I'd done earlier when I bought Pokemon food and potions. _I've improved a lot today, and I want pizza. That, and I am now promising myself that tomorrow, I won't buy anything pre-made. I'll buy ingredients and make my meals. It's probably cheaper._ After deciding that I will, in fact, have pizza for dinner, I went back to get Chikorita, so we could eat together.

After buying a cheese pizza for myself, which cost 100P, and putting a packet of the grass-type Pokemon food I'd bought into a bowl for Chikorita, we sat at a small table. Well, Chikorita sat **on top** of the table, but hey, it's a Pokemon Centre, they're allowed to. I even saw other Pokemon on top of a table, so I knew it was fine. Unlike breakfast, where she didn't finish her food (because Professor Elm had given me a bigger packet), she finished all of what she was given, and was even hungry enough to eat the crusts of my pizza (because I don't like the crusts). I figured that now that it's dark, I should stay in the Pokemon Centre.

After we finished eating, I asked the purple-haired employee about getting a room for the night. She told me that since it was just me and not a group, and since it was just for one night, I didn't have to worry about reserving or anything. Basically, if there's a room available, I can use it for tonight, no problem. She gave me my room key and showed me to one of their smaller rooms. The small room didn't have much in it, just a bunk bed (probably so they could also use the room for a group of two) and a bedside table. There was no joined bathroom, but just down the hall my room was in, there was a bathroom with a few toilet stalls, as well as a few shower stalls. I didn't mind that the room didn't have its own bathroom, since I wasn't going to in it that much, it was just for sleeping in. I'm guess most other trainers were the same way, which is why Pokemon Centres don't bother paying to put bathrooms attached to each room.

I stayed in the Pokemon Centre for the rest of the night, hanging out in the trainers' lounge. I let Chikorita stay out of her Pokeball, and I looked on as she wandered around the room, greeting other Pokemon who were out of their Pokeballs. I saw a trainer come over to find that their Pidgey was perched on Chikorita's head, just next to the fragile leaf.

"Pidgey, don't sit there, Chikorita might not like that." I heard a girl say. By now I'd gone over to see what was going on. Chikorita didn't look all too bothered, but still Pidgey fluttered up and off Chikorita's head. The trainer, who was a girl who looked about my age, noticed me and recognised me as Chikorita's trainer. "Sorry," she said.

"No harm done," I said. "Chikorita's fine, aren't you, Chiko?"

"Chiko!" She said.

"I see you tend to shorten its name," the girl said.

"Yeah, I guess I have been sometimes."

"That's fine, some people give nicknames to all their Pokemon. I like to name them after my favourite foods. I call my Pidgey 'Strawberry'." _A strange way to think of names, but okay. At first, I never really noticed I'd been shortening Chikorita's name. I guess it's just easier to say? I wonder if I'll end up nicknaming any other Pokemon? Like Falkner suggested, I probably should catch another Pokemon before challenging him to a rematch, so I suppose I'll try catching a Pokemon tomorrow._

I didn't talk to Strawberry's trainer much more after that. She went back to her friends. As I looked around the room, I noticed that a lot of trainers seemed to be travelling with friends. Either that, or they all really good at talking to people they'd just met. But me? I was travelling alone. _Why did I think this was a good idea? This would probably be so much easier if I were travelling with someone. Even if they were just as inexperienced as I am, it would still be helpful to make mistakes, talk about them, and learn together. But instead, here I am, travelling alone. I mean, not completely alone. I've got Chikorita, but still, it's not the same as another trainer who is going through the same journey I am. I could always try talking to the other trainers I meet at Pokemon Centres, but then I'd have to be less shy to be able to do that. I've never been very good at talking to people._

I felt like I didn't really have much to do in the trainers' lounge, since I didn't really feel like I could talk to people, so I went to my room. It was almost 8:30, a bit early to be going to sleep. And I wasn't even tired yet. I needed something to do.

It was then that I was surprised by a sound close to me. It took me a moment to realise that it was my Pokegear, still around my neck as usual. The phone app, the be precise. Someone was calling. I checked the caller ID. It was Joey.

"Yo, Kris! How're you doing? This is Joey, got a minute?" Came his voice through the Pokegear.

"Sure, what's up? I'm happy to chat." _Even though I'm not very good at chatting but… well, hopefully he'll be talkative, and I can just listen and not talk much, like I usually do in conversations._

"How are your Pokémon doing? My Rattata's raring to go, just like always. It's the only one I have. I'm going to become a great trainer with it!" He talked enthusiastically and continued quickly without giving me much of a chance to talk, which I didn't mind. "Oh yeah, I saw a wild Caterpie! I thought about going for it, but I decided to work with my one-and-only right to the extreme end."

He talked a lot, which was fine. I quite enjoyed talking and listening to Joey. It was almost like he knew that I'd been feeling left out and wanted to talk to someone. His call couldn't have come at a better time. I answered as soon as I saw the caller ID, happy to hear from him. Sure, he may not have been the most challenging trainer I've battled, but that's just it. He understands what it's like to lose, to keep training and try your best. Talking to him reminded me that I'm not alone, and I can have a friend.

* * *

 **A/N: I know, most people tend to hate on Youngster Joey, but not me. He was Kris's first trainer battle (other than Silver, who hasn't been very pleasant to talk to), so I knew I'd be mentioning him again.**

 **Once again, I really enjoyed writing Silver, as well as Kris's replies to him. I kind of paraphrased one of the Harry Potter movies at one point though. (I say "movies" because I haven't read all of the books, so I don't know if this quote is the same or if he only says it in the movie.) In Order of the Phoenix, he says, "All great witches and wizards started off as nothing more than what we are now: students. If they can do it, why not us?" But I of course took away the part about wizards and instead said, "all people who made it big in life started off as nothing more than what we are now: kids. If they can do it, why not us?" Still, everything else they said was all me, and I had a lot of fun creating their conversation. I can't wait for next time Silver shows up!**

 **Shadowkat87, there is a Pokemon that only appears at night that you must be forgetting. You'll finally find out what it is in the next chapter, which I'll finish writing and upload soon.**

 **So, who's excited for Let's Go Pikachu and Let's Go Eevee? I know I am. That reminds me, Bill gives the player an Eevee, and since this is following the game events, that's definitely happening at some point in the story, as is every other Pokemon the game gives you. Have fun trying to think about what Kris ends up evolving it into. I'm pretty sure I already know what it will be, and I'm excited to write about that. But anyway, I'm getting ahead of myself as I always do. In future chapter: Kris catches a Pokemon, challenges Falkner to a rematch, and finally finishes up Violet City and goes somewhere new!**


	15. Chapter 15: Midnight Walk

**A/N: Yay, I got another chapter done, and so quickly too! Hopefully the next one won't take too long either. So, this one's for anyone who has trouble sleeping, because I've been having a lot of trouble sleeping recently. Luckily, Kris finds something better to do that sleeping tonight.**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Pokemon.**

* * *

I felt my eyes once again open to see the dark room in the Pokemon Centre. Looking to the ends of the bed, I saw that Chikorita was still curled up on the pillow I'd given her. Since no one was using the top bunk, I'd taken the pillow from the top bunk and put it at the end of the bed so Chikorita could sleep near me.

I turned to face the other side. I tried to close my eyes. No good. I turned the other way. Nope, I turned back around. I could not get to sleep. I know bright light like a screen isn't good for you when you're trying to get to sleep, but I wanted to know the time, so I picked up my Pokegear and pushed a button to activate the backlight and see the time. It was a few minutes past midnight. I'd gone to bed after a nice conversation with Joey which ended at around 9:30. So why had I randomly woken up at midnight? Maybe I was just getting used to sleeping in an unfamiliar bed. I needed to go back to sleep. I was slightly tired, tired enough to sleep. At least, I thought I was tired enough to fall asleep. But try as I might, I just could not fall asleep. So, I gave up trying to get back to sleep for now.

I swung my legs off the bed and used the small light from my Pokegear to see the lamp on the bedside table, which I turned on. I felt movement on the bed and saw that Chikorita was actually awake. I realised when I'd looked at her before, I'd just seen her curled up and assumed she was asleep but wasn't actually able to see if she was asleep.

"Hey," I said quietly. You know that feeling when you're in a really quiet room, or it's really late at night, or both, and you end up speaking really quietly? Or is that just me? "Did I wake you?" She shook her head. "Can't sleep either, huh?" She nodded. "I don't know what to do. It's late. We should probably try to get some sleep. We'll want to be well-rested tomorrow. We'll re-challenge that gym, yeah?" Chikorita jumped off the bed, stretched, and then walked to the bedroom door. "You want to go out? Why? Do you need to go outside to go to the bathroom? I mean, not an actual bathroom, but… you know…" She shook her head. "You're saying you just want to go outside?" I asked, still whispering. She nodded.

"Chiko," she said, as if trying to match my quiet voice. She looked at the door, then at me, then back to the door.

"I don't know, Chiko. It's late. Shouldn't we stay in the room?" I took a moment to think before deciding. "Okay. Maybe we could get some fresh air. But just for a few minutes. And you have to stay close to me, okay?"

"Chiko," she nodded happily. Figuring it would be cold out, I quickly switched the pink shorts I'd been sleeping in with white pants. I didn't bother to change out of my comfy shirt I'd been wearing but grabbed my white jacket. Chikorita waiting by the door as I pulled on my shoes. And then I remembered that the purple-haired employee, when she showed me to my room, had showed me that the bedside table has a torch in its bottom drawer, in case of an emergency such as a power outage or something like that, so I grabbed the torch and put it in my bag for now. Remembering to grab my room key so I could get back in, I quietly closed the door behind me as I left the room. Chikorita followed me to the exit and we left the building.

It's a weird feeling, being out late at night. I wandered through the city, as if I had a destination, but didn't know where it is. Chikorita followed close behind me. I could tell from the way she bounded along that she wanted to go a bit faster but was staying close as she was told. As I walked around, I noticed a gap in the trees that lead out of Violet City. Checking my Pokegear, I confirmed that that direction led to Route 32. _Maybe I can look around over there a little. Besides, that means I won't be completely lost when I go that way some other time. I'll probably go that way after I'm finished in Violet City._

Slightly unsure of what I was really doing, I shone the torch in front of me as I walked into a small clearing where I noticed a berry tree. When I looked closer, I could recognise the berries as Pecha Berries. I went over and picked one, before moving through to the other side of the clearing. I saw a path off to my right, but my Pokegear told me it lead to the Ruins of Alph, and I didn't think ruins would be a very fun place to go right now. This late at night, it would probably seem kind of creepy there. So, I continued along the straight path. I saw some tall grass and wondered for a moment if I should turn back, if I should really risk having to battle late at night when I was only planning on going for a quick walk. But then, before I could make that decision myself, Chikorita bounded ahead of me, and passed through the tall grass, without a sign of any Pokemon nearby. _What if it's okay? What if they're all asleep? No, but aren't some Pokemon nocturnal?_

"Chikorita…" I was going to tell her to come back, but I stopped myself. _I can go a little further. I can go through the tall grass. If there are Pokemon, I can just get Chikorita to battle them. I don't really want to be battling right now, but…_ Any reasons I had no to keep walking disappeared from my mind as I followed Chikorita through the tall grass. Slowly, I made it to the other side of the patch of the tall grass, where I was happy to see there was the beginning of a proper, white path.

I walked a bit further, along the path, until I saw a large pond. I saw a bridge and thought it would be nice to sit on the bridge for a moment before going back to my room in the Pokemon Centre. I went over to the bridge and then looked back behind me to make sure Chikorita was still following me. I sat down on the bridge, and Chikorita stood next to me. She looked at the water, before curiously reaching forward with her left-front leg. Her foot dipped into the water for a moment, and I wondered if I should hold onto her to make sure she doesn't fall in, but she retracted her foot, shook it dry, and sat down next to me. I watched as the small ripple she'd made when her foot touched the water expanded, circles getting bigger until there didn't really seem to be any of it left. But then, as I watched the ripples disappear, I noticed some bubbled forming in the water, as if someone was under the water, blowing bubbles. To my surprise, a small head popped out of the water. I watched as whatever it was (I couldn't quite make out much more than a small blur of a shape in the dark night) swan towards the bridge. Seeing it come closer, I stood up.

"Woo-pa!" It called, and jumped out of the water, landing in front of me on the bridge. I backed away two steps, before remembering I was on a bridge, and looked behind me to make sure I wasn't about to step off the edge.

"Chi-ko!" Chikorita now stood in front of the smaller Pokemon, ready to protect me. The small Pokemon was approximately half of Chikorita's height. I pulled out my Pokedex to find out what it was. I found out it was a Wooper, the Water Fish Pokemon. Quickly pulling up a page of brief info on water-types, I noticed that grass-type attacks were super-effective.

"Chiko, use razor leaf!" I said. She shot leaves at the Wooper, which knocked it stepping back and it fell back into the water. Chikorita stepped forward and peered down into the water, only to see the Wooper jump out and back onto the bridge. It shot a water gun, which landed a direct hit. It didn't seem to hurt Chikorita too much, but just knocked her, stepping back a few steps. Looking back to my Pokedex screen, I saw that Wooper was not just a water type, but also a ground type, and the ground type was also weak to grass-types. _That explains why it seemed so scared of the razor leaf. It's double weak to grass-type moves! This should be easy then._ I looked back at the Wooper to see it run towards Chikorita for a direct attack. "Vine whip!" Chikorita knocked it away with her vines. "Now razor leaf." Wooper had no arms, so getting back on its feet after being knocked down by a vine was not an easy task. With Wooper still trying to stand, this time it was hit by all the leaves, and stopped trying to stand up. This was my chance to leave, the battle could be over now. I looked into my bag, and an idea formed in my head. I reached in and grabbed one of the empty Pokeballs that Professor Elm's assistant had given me, the Pokeballs I'd been too nervous to try using. But now, on this midnight walk, for no real reason other than because I feel like it, I am going to catch a Pokemon. "Pokeball, go!" I shouted into the quiet night. I threw the ball, which hit Wooper and then landed onto the bridge. It shook one, twice, three times. Then I heard a click. I stepped over and picked it up. I'd done it. I'd caught a Pokemon. And in this moment, I didn't care about being quiet because it's late at night, I was so happy. "I caught a Wooper!" I cheered, holding up the Pokeball.

"Chik-chi-ko!" Chikorita cheered. I knelt down and gave her a pat on the head.

"Good job, Chikorita. I'd return you to your Pokeball, but you should probably walk with me back to the Pokemon Centre, just in case." Luckily, nothing did jump out at us as we walked back through the tall grass. We walked back to the Pokemon Centre. It was then that it occurred to me that Chikorita and Wooper had just been battling, and probably be healed. I was slightly surprised to see that there was, in fact, someone at the counter when I went back into the Pokemon Centre. But then I thought about it. _Of course, there would be someone here at all times of the day. The dining area may be closed, but they wouldn't close the healing services. Pokemon could need medical attention at any time of the day. I just hope they don't judge me for being out and battling so late at night._

"Hi, do your Pokemon need healing?" Asked the young woman at the counter, when she noticed me approach. But it wasn't the same woman from earlier. That made sense though, the other woman must have been working the day shift, and now this woman must be working the night shift. Although, there was something similar about this younger woman, other than her purple hair. I could tell that her purple hair hadn't been redone recently, since I could see the naturally blonde hair at the top of her head.

"Yes, I, uh, went for a bit of a midnight walk? And ended up catching a Pokemon, haha." I tried to laugh it off as I explained. I quickly returned Chikorita to her Pokeball and handed Chikorita and Wooper's Pokeballs over to her. I tried to change the subject. "Your hair looks really nice. You know, the woman who was working earlier had purple hair too."

"I know, she's my older sister. Pokemon Centres are usually run by a group of family or friends. We both decided to dye our hair together, for fun, a while ago. But when it ended up growing so that our natural colour was visible, I decided not to keep dying it and let it grow out, but she wanted to get hers redone so it would stay purple. I like your blue hair too, by the way."

"Thanks. I got it done just under a year ago, for my eleventh birthday, so my natural brown hair is starting to show. That's part of the reason I tend to wear a hat most of the time." I let out a yawn. Well, it may not have gone the way I'd expected it to, but that midnight walk had indeed made me tired like I hoped it would. "I'm going to go back to my room. I suppose I'll pick them up in the morning."

I went back to my room and took off my jacket and shoes and changed back into my pajamas. I laid down in the bed and fell asleep almost instantly, now thinking about how exciting tomorrow will be with my new friend Wooper, my rematch at the gym to look forward to, and new places I'll explore.

* * *

 **A/N: So, I don't think anyone predicted that! I think it kind of threw you off that in the games, you're not supposed to go down that way before beating the gym. But screw the rules, I wanted to give Kris a Wooper. Also, think about it. It's late at night. That guy who blocks you from going that way without the Violet City badge? Wouldn't he be sleeping? I know in games no one really sleeps, because even though the game tracks real time, you could play late at night and all the NPCs will still be in their usual places. But that's just game logic that doesn't make sense. Of course, that guy who blocks Route 32 can't always be there at every moment of every day, that's just stupid.**

 **I recently realised that I haven't been very consistent with my capitalisation. I've been leaving words like 'potion' and 'paralyse heal,' lowercase, but capitalising names of berries like 'Oran Berry,' 'Pecha Berry,' and capitalising Pokemon and anything with 'Poke' in it like 'Pokeball,' 'Pokedex' and 'Pokegear.' I decided I should either capitalise all items or no items, so as per some advice from someone, I'm going to capitalise all items. I don't know if I'll bother going back to edit previous chapters to fix 'potion' and 'paralyse heal,' since it would be pretty annoying to search for every time I mention them. But yeah, that settles that. Please let me know if you notice any other inconsistencies.**

 **So, you probably noticed my little reference to the anime: '** **I caught a Wooper!"** **"Chik-chi-ko!" I kinda copied how Ash says, "I caught a (name of Pokemon)!" and Pikachu goes "Pi-pikachu!" Do you think Kris and Chikorita should make that their thing they say whenever she catches a Pokemon? Or should I just leave it as a one-time thing? On one hand, I think it would be fun for her to have a thing she always says, but on the other hand, I don't know if it suits her. I'll have to figure that out in time for next time Kris catches a Pokemon.**

 **So, Kris has finally caught a Pokemon. How will things go tomorrow? Will she beat the gym with her team of two? Will she give Joey the rematch he probably asked for when they talked on the phone? Will she finally get out of Violet City and go to the next gym in Azalea Town? Will she catch another Pokemon anytime soon? Find out next time (or in future chapters)!**


	16. Chapter 16: Together, as a Team

**A/N: Well, shadowkat87, since this story follows the events of the games, any Pokemon that is given to the player will of course be given to Kris, since she represents the player. The Togepi egg, the egg given to you from the day care couple which can hatch into one several baby Pokemon (I already know which Pokemon it will hatch into) and the Eevee from Bill, for example, will all be obtained by Kris. I hope I don't forget about any other Pokemon that are given to the player.**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Pokemon.**

* * *

 _I forgot I'd left Chiko to be healed._ Weirdly enough, even though I hadn't had her for that long yet, I was expecting to feel that familiar weight on my legs of Chikorita leaning on me as I slept. Instead, I woke up in the empty, quiet space of my Pokemon Centre room. I checked the time on my Pokegear. It was just after 8:00 AM. Remembering the events of yesterday, I excitedly got dressed, tied up my hair in my usual two ponytails, grabbed my bag, and rushed off to collect Chikorita and Wooper from the front counter and give back the room key. I was about to put their Pokeballs into my bag when I remembered I had no way to tell Wooper's apart from the empty ones. So, I pulled out my sticker kit.

I pulled up Wooper's page on my Pokedex to see a picture, to help me decide what design to put on its sticker. I hadn't been able to see him/her (I still don't know Wooper's gender) very clearly last night since it was dark, but now I could see in the picture that Wooper was a light blue colour, with purple antennae on each side of its large head. It had no arms but had two small legs and a large blue tail. On its chest was three dark blue curves, which went from smallest to largest, top to bottom. It sort of looked like an upside-down wi-fi symbol. This symbol seemed to be a good way to remember Wooper by, so I coloured in a sticker in a light blue colour like Wooper's main colour, and then used a darker blue to draw the three curves. Finally, I stuck the sticker onto the Pokeball.

 _Wait a second, I don't know if Wooper is a boy or a girl. Hmm, maybe the nurse who looked after him/her would have found out. I'll ask her._ I ran over to the counter to see that since it was still fairly earlier, the younger of the purple haired sisters was still working.

"Hey, you didn't, um, happen to notice my Wooper's gender when you looked after it?" I asked awkwardly.

"Yes, actually. I believe that Wooper is a boy."

"Oh, okay. Thanks." _Now that I've got that done, maybe I should get breakfast. Wait… I don't have food for Wooper!_ "Gotta go."

I went to the mart and found the Pokemon food aisle. I found a packet of food similar to the ones I'd bought for Chikorita, the same brand and same size, but labelled as being for water types. From what I could gather from the information in the Pokedex, Wooper had more water characteristics than ground, so I figured it should use the water-type Pokemon food. I decided buying in bulk would be a good idea, so I bought two days' worth of food for Wooper (6 packets) and bought one day's worth of grass-type food for Chikorita, since I already had three grass-type packets. I also bought a loaf of bread for 50P and a jar of Bluk Berry jam for 30P, so I could make some toast for breakfast. I also remembered to buy a small bowl for Wooper, while was 20P. Altogether, I ended up spending 1900P. _I'm going to need to battle some trainers today to make up for this._

I went back to the Pokemon Centre to sit in the dining room. They had a toaster that was open for anyone to use, just like the microwave I'd used yesterday to heat up the leftovers to eat as lunch. I made two pieces of toast and spread the jam I'd bought on them. With my own breakfast ready, I let Chikorita and Wooper out of their Pokeballs, so they could eat theirs.

"Chiko!"

"Woopa!"

"Good morning, you two. It was nice to meet you, Wooper, and I look forward to us all working together and becoming friends." I said to them. I pulled out a packet of each of their food and put the food into their bowls. "You'll remember this bowl, Chikorita, and Wooper, that bowl is yours." I made sure they knew which bowl to eat from, so they got the food suited to their own type. After I ate, I looked at the map on my Pokegear, so I could see what nearby areas I hadn't explored. I remembered looking around Dark Cave yesterday, but not really exploring it because it was so dark. But with that TM that Sage Li gave me, I could light it up. _We'll do some training in Dark Cave, and then we can go challenge the gym. Although, when I spoke to Joey on the phone last night, he did say he'd be up for a rematch. I suppose I can let Wooper battle his Rattata. Assuming he didn't catch any new Pokemon since yesterday, which I highly doubt since he really enjoyed talking about how he's just going to stick with his one Rattata._

I left the Pokemon Centre and headed towards Route 31 to explore Dark Cave. As I exited the connecting building, I saw Wade over in the tall grass like he was yesterday.

"Hey, Kris." He said, as I passed.

"Hi." I said. Then an idea popped into my head. "Do you want a rematch?"

"I was thinking the same thing!" He exclaimed. "Two of my Pokemon have evolved since our battle yesterday."

"Nice. And you'll get to use both of them, too. I've caught a new Pokemon since we last battled. I haven't had a chance to train with him though…"

"Well, that's okay, I'll send out mine first."

"This will be fun. I've never battled with two Pokemon before."

"It'll just be a simple 2v2. Substitutions allowed, of course."

"Substitutions?" I asked.

"Switching between your Pokemon. Sometimes in gym battles they say substitutions aren't allowed, so a Pokemon has to stay in the battle until it loses. Or usually, the challenger is allowed to make substitutions, but the gym leader isn't."

"Oh, okay. Yeah, of course, if that's the usual simple rules, substitutions allowed."

"Go, Kakuna!" He grabbed a Pokeball and sent out a yellow cocoon Pokémon with a dome-shaped head with black, triangular eyes. It had two scythe-like arms in the middle of its body, but they didn't seem to move. _Perhaps those arms won't be of use until it evolves again?_ I checked my Pokedex to see that Kakuna was the Cocoon Pokemon, and the evolve form of Weedle. Since it evolved from Weedle, it was still a poison type, and thus, probably still could use poison sting. I don't know if Wade had done it on purpose, but by sending out his Pokemon first, he'd given me a bit of an advantage. Knowing that I was up against a Pokemon that could use poison-type attacks allowed me to decide, _well, I probably shouldn't put Chikorita up against a poison-type, so I should use Wooper in this battle._ As I was quickly rereading the information on the poison type, I noticed something else: poison-type attacks aren't very effective on ground types, and Wooper was part ground-type. _Perfect!_

"Go Wooper!" I said, pulling out the blue-stickered ball and releasing Wooper.

"Woo-pa!"

"Go, string shot!" Wade said. Kakuna shot some sort of sticky-looking white sting which hit Wooper and got stuck to him. "Now use this time to harden." While Wooper attempted to get the string off of him without any hands, which didn't look easy, Kakuna appeared to be doing… absolutely nothing. _But maybe it is doing something, and I just can't see what it is. I shouldn't get overconfident, thinking they're not even trying or something._ I watched Wooper try to kick the string off itself and I had an idea.

"Wooper, use water gun on yourself!" Wade looked confused when he heard my command but seemed to understand. He watched as Wooper aimed his water gun down the front of his own body like a shower. It made the string looser, and it simply slipped down his body and he could just step out of it. "Now use slam." Wooper ran up and slammed its large round tail into Kakuna, knocking it down. As Wooper jumped back, Kakuna somehow managed to get itself upright again.

"Poison sting," The poison sting landed a hit, but I wasn't too worried. Just as I predicted, the poison type attack didn't hurt Wooper much.

"Woopa," he turned and smiled at me, as if to say, 'I'm fine, we've got this.' Not looking at Kakuna, he didn't see a second poison sting coming. The hit startled him, but he didn't seem too hurt. I think poison sting and string shot are all Kakuna knows how to do, since it shot yet another poison sting. But this time, I saw it coming.

"Push it back with a water gun," Wooper used water gun, which landed a direct hit on Kakuna, as well as hitting it with its own poison sting.

"…Kakuna? You okay?" Wade asked. Kakuna let itself fall to the ground. Wade went and crouched down beside it. "I think that's it for you. Take a rest." He returned it to its Pokeball and then pulled out another Pokeball. "Go, Metapod!" He sent out a green Pokemon with a crescent shaped body that appeared to be some sort of chrysalis.

I thought about having Wooper hit it with a water gun as soon as it came out of the Pokeball, but would that really be fair? I decided I should give it a chance and not take a cheap shot. _Besides, I'm doing fine anyway. I'm already ahead, having not lost a Pokemon yet._ I waited for Wade to call an attack. But that wasn't such a good idea. I was expecting it to go straight for a physical attack like tackle, which would be easy for Wooper to doge and then counterattack. Instead, Metapod started with a string shot, which wrapped around Wooper before Metapod went for a tackle, which hit while Wooper was still trying to get the sticky string off.

That was when I remembered that I still had Chikorita. We were allowed substitutions. _Sure, I could keep battling and see if Wooper could finish the battle on his own, but I should give Wooper a break, and give Chikorita a turn too. Besides, my Pokemon are a team, they should work together._ With that decision made, I quickly pulled out Wooper's Pokeball. "Great job Wooper, you can take a break." I quickly said before returning him to his Pokeball. The string fell to the ground as Wooper disappeared into his ball. Wade looked at me expectedly as I grabbed Chikorita's ball. _He knows_ , I thought. _We've battled before. He knows who I'm sending out next._ "Come on out, Chikorita!"

"Chiko!" I knew that grass-type attacks wouldn't do so well against the bug-type Metapod, but they could still be of some use. I saw that Metapod was attempting a tackle ( _I think that's all it can do other than string shot_ ), but I knew Chiko was faster.

"Knock it back with a vine whip," I said. Chiko extended two vines, twisting them together to make one thicker, stronger vine before knocking the incoming Metapod away from her. "Now use razor leaf."

"Metapod, harden!" Wade said. Chiko used razor leaf, but the leaves didn't appear to be affecting Metapod as much as I'd expected.

"Now tackle," I said.

"Harden again!" Chikorita tackled Metapod, but Metapod wasn't down yet. I realised that these hardens were making Metapod harder to damage. But Metapod was still being damaged. I decided to go for something more powerful.

"Chiko, body slam!"

"Chi-ko!" Chikorita slammed herself against Metapod, and this time, it was down for good.

"Nice one Chikorita," Wade went to crouch down beside Metapod to confirm that it was done battling, and it was. He returned it before reaching for his Pokegear.

"Nice job." He said. "You've been raising that Chikorita well. And for a new Pokemon, that Wooper already seems to be happy battling alongside you. Of course, I'm no expert myself. But just you wait. Once my Pokemon evolve again, I'll call you, and we'll have another rematch. Next time, I'll be ready." I smiled.

"I look forward to it." And I really was looking forward to it. This battle had been so fun, what with Wooper and then Chikorita each having a go. Even though they weren't in the battle at the same time, it feels like they had been, in fact, working together. Because they both won the battle. They won this battle together, as a team.

"Fair's fair," He said. "400P, the prize for winning a 2v2." I checked my Pokegear to see that it had now been sent.

"Thank you, that was a great battle. I think I'm going to try exploring Dark Cave."

"Good luck," he said. "I'm going to keep training until all of my Pokemon are fully evolved. The Violet City gym is going to be a challenge, since my bug-types won't do so well against flying-types. It won't be easy, but I never do things the easy way. And one day, I **will** beat Falkner!"

"Let me know when you do. See you around!" _Where should I explore next? Who should I battle next? I can't wait to see what else this team is capable of!_

* * *

 **A/N: Sorry for the wait, but I have been really busy. Despite the next chapter (probably) being a short one, I'm not sure when I'll be able to get it done. But there are school holidays soon, so hopefully then I'll have plenty of time to get some chapters done. I'll admit that this chapter doesn't have that much happening in it. I was originally going to have this chapter include rematches with Bug Catcher Wade, as well as some other stuff and then next chapter would be a rematch at the gym. But then I decided to split the chapter and have that other stuff happen next time. But I'm pretty sure the gym rematch will happen in chapter 17 or 18. I look forward to finally writing the gym battle, this time with it being a 2v2. See you next time!**


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